Club Meeting Featuring Ted Davis, Superintendent of Livonia Parks & Rec

The Livonia A.M. Rotary Club met at our new “digs” at the Livonia Senior Wellness Center, two days after Groundhog Day. After the Pledge of Allegiance, led by club President Nancy Darga, and an Invocation called Desiderata,” by Greg Greene, Happy Bucks roared in, including “sad” bucks for that rodent, Punxsutawney Phil’s alleged meteorological prediction of six more weeks of Winter.

This was, however, offset by Dave Burton’s quote: “Doing nothing is hard to do

because you do not know when you are finished.”

Notes:

• RYLA is May 15-17 at Camp Copneconic, Fenton. We will help the Stevenson Interact Club, as well as the Churchill Interact Club and Clarenceville H.S. in sending students to RYLA for leadership development.

• $92,888.29 for Rebuild Rotary Park has been generated by our two Livonia Rotary clubs in contributions and pledges. 

Livonia Noon Rotary Club member, Ted Davis, Superintendent of the Livonia Parks & Recreation Dept. gave a much-needed and through power point presentation on Parks

& Rec and the status of Rotary “Community” Park and the main pavilion, destroyed during the

tornado in June, 2024. He oversees almost 2,000 acres and 66 sites, 18-full-time and 100-300 seasonal employees, including the Rec. Center & Senior Wellness Center, Wilson Barn, three public golf courses, and Greenmead. The Rec Center has over 150 weekly programs and special events, with over 750,000 annual visits. The Senior Wellness Center averages 90,000 annual visits. Renovations to the Rec Center actually date back to 2019.

The main Pavilion #1, with a green metal roof, is slated for completion by June 1st, 2026. The footings should be poured in March. It will be virtually the same size as the previous one.

Instead of separate Men’s & Women’s restrooms there will be three unisex restrooms, unheated and for seasonal use only. There is a distinction between Livonia’s “community” parks (Rotary, Bicentennial, Ford, & Sheldon) and “neighborhood parks” (par. ex., Castle Garden, Nash, etc.).

The goal of the Pavilion Project is to make it in Livonia a “signature” pavilion. New turf at the Rotary Park universal playscape, which we built in 2018, will replace the current surface. Park & Rec. has a 10-year capital plan of $50 million ($5,000,000 annually).

“Taxes are your investment in a community” – Ted Davis. A great thought! Ted took numerous questions, including prepared questions, and his presentation was very well-received. We closed the meeting with reciting the “Four-Way-Test.”

From scribe, Dave Stechholz