We sang Oh Canada, Kim Widdicombe offered Grace, and we toasted the Queen and Canada.

President Larry introduced the Head Table - to introduce our speaker, John Snowling; speaker, Eric Moog; President, Larry Iggulden; Sergeant-at-arms, Ron Sloan; Rotary member, Art Weaver; Registrar, Kelly Buckley

Rotarian in the Spotlight - Art Weaver - Art joined Rotary in February, 2004, introduced by Rachel Delaney. It wasn't too long ago that Art gave his classification talk, and many of us remember that he delivered it in jogging attire, betraying his interested in running. Art has volunteered for many community groups including the Brain Injury Association, Women's Place, Run for the Cure, Welland Canal Trail, the Bruce Trail, and the General Hospital. Art has most recently taken a leadership role in our club's efforts to find a new role for the Rotary Park on Pelham Road.

Guests - visiting Rotarian Howard Pickering, Queensland, Australia; guest of the speaker, Dwight Alguire.

Birthdays
Believe it or not, there were none, which resulted in an impromptu round of applause.

Announcements

Rachel Delaney came forward to make a Rib Fest announcement. She announced that this year's event was a tremendous success, and reminded us of the little boy who told his father that his favorite holidays were Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Rib Fest!

Rachel recognized the many members who put in great time and effort to make this Rib Fest work. These included: Ross Burns who was Vice-Chair of the committee; Rick Merritt who looked after the ribbers; Nancy Ferris-Hostick who organized the rib contest; Chris Bangham/Doug Geddie/ Roger Segalin/Rob Reid for their work with advertising, signage and photos; John Snowling for his work organizing and managing the vendors; Judith Barker and her team for finding sponsors; Liz Palmieri who organized the many volunteers with assistance from Betty-Lou; John Potts who was the treasurer for the event, and who busily wrote cheques at the meeting; Dave Feasby who handled all the cash and money-moving; John Travers and Brian St. Hillaire for physical site set-up; Mark Zammit who managed site clean-up; John Bradshaw who handled permits; Earl Alton who handled the entertainment for the weekend; Henry Becker for event security; Art Weaver and Tom Arkell who handled site planning and set-up; and finally, the 80 Rotarians (not including their friends and family members) who volunteered their time for shifts. She noted two new Rotarians: Jean Girgenti and Kim Whiddicombe for the amount of time they were there - setting good examples; and last but certainly not least - our Beer Tent managers: Wade Stayzer and Norm Kreger. All received applause from the club.

President Larry congratulated Rachel on her fabulous job, and recounted his miscalculation of change with former banker Peggy Davidson when he was new on his ticket sales shift . he attributed his short-changing of Peggy to a service charge (in keeping with the business practices of banks).

He also reminded members that the blood donor clinic day is August 30 th -and few have committed to do this to date- but hoped more would do so.

He also urged all members to sign up for committees, and urged all to do so before the end of the week. Several committees need members to begin their work immediately.

Happy Dollars

Dave Feasby carried the basket, and started it off with $8 - $3 of which were left over from an electronic money counter from the weekend and $5 were from his wife April - who no longer has to trek to the bank with cash. He thanked John O'Connell for use of his office and Terry Wilkes for his assistance with the cash handling. He reported that after 115 volunteer hours, deposits totaled $170,000.

Betty Lou recognized the great job done by Rachel Delaney, and reported that a replacement for Betty McLean had finally been found. Joyce Wester is to begin Aug. 15 th , and Betty Lou will bring her next week to meet members.

Eugene Gilles was sorry to miss Rib Fest, but replaced his weekend with many hours driving.

Norma Mendulun was happy that the Niagara Health System was finally making its final transitions.

Ralph Waters was happy to host his guest (sorry missed the name) who presented Larry with his club's banner, and reported that his trip had been initially delayed due to the 9/11 disaster.

Art Wing was happy to have visited 14 clubs in the district in the past 2 ½ weeks as well as 8 other Rotary events. He noted the diversity among the clubs and the quantity and quality of projects..he also noted that Larry (or perhaps our Sergeant-at-Arms) had neglected to hang the "Service Above Self" motto for the year at the podium this week.

Rick Evans is happy to be going on vacation, and hopes to see our former exchange student - Erik Derksen in Holland whom he hosted last year, and another former exchange student who he hosted many years ago- Tony Anzlovar from Slovania (Do you see the many benefits of getting involved with Youth Exchange?). He also asked members to sign up for the committee he is hosting this year: World Community Service.

John Snowling reported that he had already received feedback from the vendors who ran the children's area at Rib Fest - saying that they were extremely happy and wanted to return next year.

Norm Kreger was happy to put the money from the returned empties in the basket, and wanted to thank the kick boxing team from Zimbabwe for helping out.

Art Weaver was happy that he had heard such positive feedback from the vendors in their dealings with Rotarians.

50/50 - Martha Abra held the winning number - but did not draw the winning card.

Program
Port Dalhousie Redevelopment - Eric Moog

Harold Nash and Eric Moog

Harold Nash introduced our guest speaker: Eric Moog - representing the Port Dalhousie Vitalization Corporation. Harold reminded us that, "Development is the life blood of the community," and outlined Eric's credentials with a Business Admin. Degree, and years of experience in real estate and development internationally. He noted Mr. Moog currently resides in Niagara-on-the-Lake and briefly introduced his proposal to develop a boutique Hotel, retail space, a theatre and condominiums in Port Dalhousie.

Eric began by wanting to clarify the development project since he indicated that there had been much misinformation. He said that the development project dealt only with land north of Locke St., and there were no plans to develop south of that. The development was to include residential property, a hotel, a retail area and a theatre. The residential portion would consist of a single building to be erected on the Northwest portion of the site that would occupy less than 6,000 square feet. Four suites would be designed for each floor for a total of 80 condominiums. All parking for this complex would be below grade on this site. The height of the building was to be 100 meters (a significant amount as that was the length of the canal initially). He proposed that this would be an icon for the city of St. Catharines and would include a roof top observation deck open to the public, as well as a restaurant.

He reported that the boutique-type hotel would contain a maximum of 70 suites on Locke St. with 3600 sq.ft. for small retail stores. He stated that these would cater to both residents of the area and tourists.

The proposed theatre would be constructed below ground and seat approximately 415. It would include a fly stage similar to the Shaw Festival. He indicated that this would be a versatile venue and could host anything from play productions to symphonies. He noted that garbage would be taken care of on-site by a private waste management firm.

After receiving recommendations from an expert on heritage buildings (Higgins), the Port Dalhousie Vitalization Corporation would be complying with this. This means that no heritage buildings will be demolished. While initially they had planned to retain only the outside façade of the existing building, they have now revised their plan to keep the entire structure -underpinning it, and building above and below it. Mr. Moog also discussed the existence of an internal courtyard that would have a European flavour, and would include water features, outdoor cafes, and kiosks for local artists as well as a ground entrance.

He described the proposed development as a "mixed use - smart growth" concept, saying that it would transform Port Dalhousie from a seasonal to a year-round destination for tourists, creating a critical mass where retailers would flourish. He concluded his talk by outlining several advantages of the development. These include:

• The tax base would be increased by $900,000.
• After consulting with an economics professor from Brock, it was estimated that 800 new full-time direct and indirect jobs would be created.
• It would change the focus in Niagara more to tourism, and he stressed that this change should occur in the near future.
• This development could act as a catalyst for future development projects in St. Catharines. He noted that NOTL has many more applications for such projects, yet they are 1/10 th the size.
• He believes that St. Catharines needs a new direction.

Several questions followed:

George Darte asked about parking. Eric Moog responded by saying that residential parking would be provided by the development, but the extra people that would come to the area for the retail and theatre would need to be handled by the city. However, he suggested that the existing parking area could be re-configured to accommodate 80 more spaces. He also said that the type of people the development would draw could decrease the existing congestion since they were more likely to be fewer in number and spend more money.

On Peggy Davidson's request, the map and placement of the various facilities was demonstrated, noting that the current building, "My Cottage," is the point of construction, but would remain with four stories above the existing three storey building.

Liz Palmieri asked about the implications for the Rotary Skating Path; and questioned how a large theatre could feasibly operate given that most theatres require subsidies to survive. Eric's development corporation will not be managing the theatre, and he noted that the size was decided on the recommendation of Christopher Newton, Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival. He said that it was intended as an attraction to draw people year-round. He thought that the skating path plans could be facilitated with this development given the increased tax monies that would come to the city, and said that there had been some talk that the region (who also receives 1/3 of these taxes) would match dollars to build it, and to assist with parking reconfiguration. He also noted that a "chiller plant" would be constructed to provide cold water in the summer, and could be used to flood the skating path in the winter.

Dutch Erling asked if the development could be done in phases, and the answer was, "No."

Peggy Davidson thanked the speaker, congratulating him on his bravery to address such a controversial topic. Peggy thanked him for clearing up many misconceptions regarding the project.

Larry added his thanks with a donation to landmine clean-up - whereby 16 sq. meters in Afghanistan would be cleared as a result of Mr. Moog's presentation.

Next Week - Fire Department