Byesville Rotary begins new service project

Pictured: Jim Vaughan, Shana Fair, Landscape Committee members, and Joe (Grizz) Smith, Landscape Committee chair.

No reading assignment for next week.

Guest: Devin Cork, secretary of Byesville Rotary Interact Club.

Business meeting:

• Members voted to give $3200 to District for EREY and to allocated 100 points toward Paul Harris to each member of the club listed on the July 1, 2010 SARS report.
• Members voted to authorize up to $450 for Four Way speech Contest prizes.
• Tanya reported that next year the District Governor will focus on hunger. He wants each club to be involved in 3 hunger campaigns and 3 literacy campaigns. Club Presidents Elect have been asked to bring non-perishable food items to the District Assembly. Tanya is asking members to bring food items to the next meeting.
• The club has been asked by the Relay For Life Planning Committee to select a club member to serve as an Honorary Co-Chair for the Relay this year. Joe asked for a volunteer.
• The Landscape Committee will meet next week after the regular meeting.

Spring is coming. Thoughts of Byesville Rotary members are turning to gardening. Under the leadership of Dr. Joe (Grizz) Smith, Byesville Rotary is making plans to upgrade the landscaping at the Rotary Gazebo at the corner of Main and 2ed. streets in Byesville.

Members of the Landscaping Committee, led by Grizz, have begun meeting and developing plans for the gazebo area. This area is used for a variety of activities. Club members want to insure that landscaping will enhance, not hinder, use of the area. The committee wants to design a landscape that will be easy to care for and will be visually enticing to people driving through town, walkers, and visitors to the village.

Some of the activities taking place in the gazebo include the use of the site for rest, relaxation, and reflection, for posting signs to be seen from the street, and for the Byesville Rotary chicken BBQ. Committee members want the area to be seen as a welcoming spot for public use and to present a visually positive image of Byesville from the street.

Projects being considered are to upgrade the current BBQ fire pit and redo the wood storage bin which has become an eyesore. Committee members would like to use plants to create a visual break between the next-door parking lot and the gazebo area. They plan to landscape the corner of Main and 2ed so that signs can be posted and be seen from a moving car easily. They also would like to ensure landscaping in this area allows for easy mowing around signs.

An important consideration in the new landscaping design will be developing a landscape that will be attractive through all four seasons. Perennials and annuals providing pops of color during spring, summer, and fall will be added. Plants chosen will need to be attractive in the winter.

The club plans to preserve the gazebo as a focal point. They will also preserve the mature trees already in the area and would like to enlarge the plantings near the row of Norway spruce at the rear of the area.

The club’s next meeting will be 7:30 am, March 8, 2011, at the Stop Nine Senior Center at 60313 (GPS use 60299) Southgate Road, Byesville. Anyone interested in learning more about the Byesville Rotary can call Membership Chairs Marty Patchen, 740-685-3828, or Larry Miller, 740-439-2767