Club Meeting - Featuring Eileen McDonnell and Steve King, Candidates for Livonia City Council

The meeting was opened by Past President Dave Stechholz who gave the Invocation, led us in singing America the Beautiful and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, until President Nancy Darga arrived and took over the meeting.

Our guests at today’s meeting were: Drew Buatti and Jacki Graham from the Livonia Noon Rotary club, and Kurt Whitmore from the Dearborn Heights Rotary club.

Sharon Pommerville conducted Happy Bucks. There was a lot of happiness for the success of Touch a Truck, which surpassed last year’s attendance. Kudos to Bob Carris for some new additions to the trucks and the sky diver.

What next? President Darga provided updated information on our club’s

Rebuild Rotary Park project. She shared that the Detroit Free Press featured an article on the project. The story focused on the need to rebuild the shelter and comfort station. Darga stated that

9 bids were received from the lowest at $829,000 to $1.2 million. The engineer’s estimate was $600,000. At the August 11 meeting of the City Council, they decided to study the estimates and costs. The Livonia AM and Noon Rotary Clubs are committed to raising funds toward this project and would like to see the City make its decision based on the needs of the park users:

1. Our objective is to build a structure that serves the community.

2. It must be built in a way to handle great use and deter abuse.

3. It must require low maintenance.

4. It must be durable and long-lasting.

Today’s special speakers were Eileen McDonnell and Steve King, candidates running for Livonia City Council.

Eileen McDonnell is a retired employee of a chemical company where she handled contracts. She has a FaceBook and Website page. Eileen’s main approach is to be a good listener and to get contracts out more frequently to increase efficiency.

Steve King has eleven siblings. He was very open in stating that he wrote speeches to defeat the mileage. He was disappointed that only 30% of Livonia's citizens voted in the election. One of Steve’s missions is to get people to vote and get the City to be more responsive to considering more reasonable bids and ideas for how to repair or build new structures in Livonia. He has a variety of ideas for how to rebuild Rotary Park and believes the City can do a better job finding more affordable construction. He proposed using first responder drones and proposed ways to manage deer carcasses in city streets.

The meeting ended with a reminder of a meeting for the Spaghetti Dinner on Sept. 18th at 7:00 pm, at Panera Bread.

A SignUp Genius is going out for volunteering at the District Governor’s Golf Outing on September 8th, at Lakes of Taylor Golf Course, beginning at 7:30 am.

Nancy announced a Leadership Meeting immediately following today’s meeting.

Victoria Haltom