Meeting of the Rotary Club of
Eureka
March 28, 2016
Lunch
Menu: Salad bar, fried chicken, fried fish, mixed vegetables, rolls,
dessert.
Called
to order by President Jay Bahner at 12:30pm.
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mike Martin. The Invocation was led by Greg Williston.
VISITING ROTARIANS: From Mad River Rotary… Helen Edwards, Mike
Rhodes, Daniel Gibbs and President Greg Orsini.
GUESTS OF ROTARIANS: Dale Warmuth introduced his
parents, Leon & Elaine Warmuth, Richard Storre introduced his wife, Debby,
and her son.
BIRTHDAYS: Richard Storre’s birthday is
today, as well as our exchange student Andy (who wasn’t present). Birthdays coming
up this week… Justin Golnik, Matt Mesner and Andy Mills.
ANNIVERSARIES: Sue & Bob Bosch, John &
Sandy Winzler, David & Roxanne O’Brien, Nancy Dean’s been a member of
Eureka Rotary for 10 years this week.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Ted Loring talked about Youth
Exchange. We have two students leaving
Humboldt to go abroad. One is Jonus
Anderson who will be going to Argentina and Paraguay. He’s a junior in High School. He will be
receiving his diploma prior to leaving (finished school in 3 years). He’s a guitar player. You can hear his guitar playing at
tobeannounced5.bandcamp.com. Brice is in
Bolivia now. He’s had a rough,
challenging and rewarding year abroad and will be visiting when he’s back to
tell us about it. Ted asked Rotarians to
step up to the plate and join the Youth Exchange committee as people are
needed. Also, if anybody is at all
interested in hosting exchange students please talk to him.
Neal
Carnam talked about a fundraiser that Rotary Club of Eureka and Mad River Rotary
are working on together. They are
raising money to help restore a village in Nepal that was devastated during the
earthquake last year. There will be a
dinner/auction on April 16th at the Elks Lodge. Please buy a ticket for $50 and help
out.
Christian
Hill talked about NCAA basketball. There
are still 34 $25 squares left out of the 64 squares. Please see him about
buying a square.
President
Jay said that the Rotary Exchange team from India will be here in May. Rotary Club of Eureka will host a trip on the
Madaket on Saturday, May 14th at 10:45am followed by lunch at
Bollywood. They can have up to 42 people
attend and so far there are only 20 signed up.
Please let Jay know if you can attend and help entertain our guests -
there’s no cost to go.
RECOGNITIONS: Phillip Nicklas spun the wheel
and was fined $25 for having a brand new baby girl, Clara Nicklas. His wife had to deliver the baby by emergency
C-section and was air lifted out of the area for care. Everybody is doing well now. He’s hoping the insurance company pays the
$51,000 bill for the flight to San Francisco!
SPENGLER-HOWARD RAFFLE:
$10: Mike Rhodes. Rotary Coin: Don Leonard. George Owren drew a card for
a pot of $310 but took home a Rotary egg timer instead.
GUEST SPEAKER: Dale Warmuth from
Leon’s Car Care Center talked about the history of his family’s business, which
started in 1961. Dale said he is the General
Manager, otherwise known as the Boss’ Son aka the guy in the Hawaiian
shirt. Their 1st building was
at 5th and Broadway in Eureka and is owned by Rotarian Jack Macdonald.
At that time Leon’s focused on muffler
and brake work. Cars were still very large at this time and there was a lot of
exhaust work required on all automobiles.
In 1966 Leon’s moved to the corner of Broadway and Grant Street in
Eureka.
As cars continued to evolve so did the business moving into tires and
wheels at one point. In 1977 Leon and
Elaine purchased the northeast corner property at Broadway and Grant Streets
focusing on exhaust and shocks at this point. Rotarian Chuck Ellsworth painted
this building with a very patriotic theme of red, white and blue complete with
stars that, according to Chuck, caused the city of Eureka to write some laws
limiting painting options in the future.
In 1993, the current building was built at 929 Broadway in Eureka. This
building contains14,000 square ft. of vehicle repair and maintenance. Exhaust/
muffler service was about 70% of the business model in 1993, while today it’s
12% and Leon’s is now an automotive repair shop specializing in general repair
and maintenance.
Dale was recently one of 12 people nationally invited to join NAPA’s
advisory board who will help NAPA determine best practices in a variety of
areas. Leon’s is a
NAPA auto care facility as well as an AAA approved auto repair facility. They
always have complimentary coffee and homemade cookies that his mother makes. In
fact his mother bakes approximately 50 dozen cookies each week. Tom Schallert pointed out that rough
calculations would mean that she’s on her 936,000 cookies now and by 2018
should be reaching her millionth cookie.
Dale
said that Leon’s has always had a strong belief in giving back to the community
including sponsoring projects like… the Boys and Girls Club, Timber Heritage
Association, Humboldt Maritime Museum, Multiple Volunteer Fire depts., Humboldt
Del Norte Timing association ( the Samoa Drag Strip ), The Eureka Skate Board
Park, Clark Museum, The Northern California Blood Bank, various elements of
both the Fortuna and Eureka High Auto Shop Programs, College of the Redwoods
Auto Shop Program, the former Humboldt County’s HROP auto shop program and
more. They have been very involved in
the Humboldt Botanical Gardens and, in fact, sponsored the Warmuth Family
Propagation Garden. Today they own the
whole city block that Leon’s sits on. In
1993 they had 8 or 9 employees and today employ 15 people.
MEETING ADJOURNED: 12:30pm
Respectfully
submitted,
Alicia
Cox
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