There were 26 members present. Our newly installed President, Tom Nash, called the meeting to order and proceeded with our thought for the day and the Pledge of Allegiance.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Tom reminded everyone of the The Asian Cuisine Benefit Dinner honoring Dave Gotaas scheduled for July 17th from 5:15 to 8:30 PM at Clarkson Park in Northfield. The Rotary’s annual outing at a Cubs-Brewers baseball game in Milwaukee is scheduled for July 29 and the same type Rotary outing in Chicago involving the White Sox and Toronto is scheduled for August 3rd. Rotary International President, Ian Riseley, is speaking at the Evanston Lighthouse Rotary Club meeting which will be held on July 18 at 7:15 to 8:30 AM at the Hilton Garden Inn, 1818 Maple Street in Evanston. Cost of the meeting for guests is $20 and Patti should be notified by July 10th if you want a reservation. Mark Kotz explained that our Raffle at the end of each meeting produced $590 this last fiscal year which was all contributed to our Foundation since we had no winners during such year. Heidi Sibert announced that her employer, James Martin Associates, gives its customers an opportunity to select a charity from a list of several charities specified by JMA to which JMA makes an annual contribution in the name of the customer. This last year JMA gave $350 to Kids Against Hunger and Operation Warm, two of the charities listed and selected by the customers. Rich Lalley announced that the Chicago Community Trust donated $1000 to the joint project of our Club and a Chicago Kiwanis Club to provide warm coats to intercity children through the City’s public libraries.
SPEAKERS were David Zazra and Roger Nasci from the North Shore Mosquito Abatement District (NSMAD) located in Northfield. David is Communications Manager and Roger is the Executive Director of NSMAD. This is a local government agency established by the Illinois legislature in 1927 and governed by five non-compensated Trustees appointed by the President of the Cook County Board. It serves 14 suburbs in Cook County between Deerfield and Lincolnwood and West to Pfingsten Road and covers 70 square miles. Its budget in 2017 is $1.69 million dollars with 7 full time and 12 seasonal staff members. The average annual tax paid by residents for NSMAD is about $9.15 per $300,000 value of your residence. The current facility is located in Northfield at 117 Northfield Rd. There was a 40 slide power point presentation which was very informative about mosquito abatement and can be obtained from Keith Reed at 312-925-6778. Also available from Keith (by email, or by clicking on this link) is a pdf booklet from NSMAD which contains its website and other information all local residents should know.
The big concern that residents should be aware of is that any container or pond on their property that catches and retains water can breed mosquitos. West Nile disease has been the primary concern over the last 5 years—there were 20 cases of the disease in the NSMAD area in 2012, but only 3 last year. Although the mosquito that can carry the Zika virus has been spotted in a section of Skokie, so far such mosquito has not been detected with such deadly virus. Residents can contact the NSMAD for advice regarding potential problems on their property and there are reliable contractors who will treat your property during the summer. Most of the NSMAD treatments are not on private property. All storm sewer drains (about 40,000 in the NSMAD) are potential but treatable problems because of the water collected in the bottom of the pits. If a resident has one of these drains on their property or their parkway, they should contact the NSMAD to make sure that it is on the list of drains that it treats. Residents can sign up on the NSMAD website to be notified of mosquito problems in the area.