Rotary Log for May 25,2023
President-Elect Yvonne Legge presided over today’s meeting. After the Pledge, Police Chief Mark Newport led the 4-Way Test. Al Lantinen crooned “America the Beautiful.” Sara Treacy gave the invocation.
GUESTS
Darren and Eileen Coute were hosted by Jon Flagg.
Amber Buttermore and Asst. District Governor Melissa Lesniak were guests of Midge Nelson.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Annual Changing of the Guard meeting is June 22.
Guests Darren and Eileen Coute presented a $12,400 check to our club on behalf of Exeter Subaru’s “Share the Love” community charity. This is the second consecutive year Portsmouth Rotary has been chosen as the local recipient. A sincere thank-you to Exeter Subaru, where Darren is the General Manager.
Marie Brownell highlighted the lengthy roster of individual and corporate sponsors for the upcoming Golf Tournament. Notable mentions included Tom Decker, donating for auction a new set of golf clubs, and Auto Fair Nissan of Stratham providing a $55,000 truck for any lucky player who snags a hole-in-one. Thanks for your indefatigable effort, Marie!
PAUL HARRIS FELLOW
Sara Treacy introduced our newest Paul Harris Fellow, Al Lantinen. For more than 30 years Al maintained an OBGYN practice in Portsmouth. Upon his retirement in 2014, he found he finally had time to attend our Thursday meetings, so promptly joined Portsmouth Rotary. Al has been an energetic member, helping with hands-on projects and Salvation Army dinners. These are his first and second Paul Harris Fellow awards. A heartfelt round of applause followed.
FINES
Fine Meister Jon Flagg exercised his prerogative to wreak havoc on our wallets with numerous outrageous strictures. He then tried to make it up to us by offering a bit of advice: “Look up your name on Google before referring others to it.”
Apparently, Jon had not done so with a recent client prospect. As a result, the said prospect was informed by Google that a Jonathan Flagg had been arrested for taking photographs in a woman’s dressing room! Another Jonathan “Big D” Flagg was picked up for running a meth ring. Your scribe is uncertain why Jon was telling us all this. Unless, of course, he was trying to get ahead of the story and thereby shape the narrative, as they say!
GUEST SPEAKER
Priscilla MacInnis introduced our speaker, Geno Marconi. Geno is Director of Ports and Harbors as part of the Pease Development Authority. His organization’s D/B/A name is New Hampshire Port Authority (“NHPA”).
The NHPA has numerous responsibilities for the complex of ports, harbors, and tidal rivers in and around Portsmouth. Among its activities are permitting more than 1,500 moorings, posting all non-Coast Guard navigational markings, and overseeing dredging with the Army Corps of Engineers.
The NHPA also maintains Foreign Trade Zones, manages all ports, and wharfs, and coordinates the Revolving Loan Fund for commercial fishermen. And these are only some of its wide-ranging operations.
One of its major recent projects has been the construction of the Sara Long Bridge in 2018-2019. The new bridge corrected some of the approach angles and widened the horizontal clearance. In so doing it caused some alterations to the Marine Terminal area. Modification of the Marine Wharf space is now a major project underway.
More than 50 percent of port traffic consists of fuel oil deliveries. Therefore, maintaining the port’s operational fitness is of critical importance to New Hampshire and surrounding regions.
RAFFLE
John Pappas won the $35 raffle but had no match.
Respectfully Submitted, Richard Greulich
Photos by Don Chick
