~ Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter ~
Rotary Club of Newberg, Zoom Meeting
Wednesday, February 02, 2022
~ Call to Order ~
President Joe Morelock welcomed Rotarians and Friends of Rotary to the Hybrid Live/Zoom meeting at 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 2, 2022 at the Chehalem Cultural Center.
~ Flag Salute ~
Joe lead participants in the Pledge of Allegiance.
~ 4 Way Test ~
Paula lead participants in the recital of the 4 Way Test:
Rotary’s Four Way Test of the things we think, say and do:
#1 – Is it the TRUTH?
#2 – Is it FAIR to all concerned?
#3 – Will it BUILD GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
#4 – Is it BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
~ Announcements ~
Newberg Advantage Magazine: Keep an eye out for our latest article. It should be hitting the mailboxes in the nest week or so.
Pancake Breakfast: Note that this is a lot of work and they are in need of volunteers. Please reach out if you would like to join it, it is a lot of fun. Aaron is in charge of the committee so get ahold of him to get involved.
~ Guests (please forgive my likely spelling mistakes)~
Francis Congo, Guest, owner of Excelier Coffee
Madeline Condeau, Guest
River Knight, Guest, Shannon’s Baby
~ The Rotary Duck ~
Rick: Recalled the early days of Polio eradication effort and noted how he has always tried to contribute to Polio each week.
Michelle: Noted that she works with the Senior Meals on Wheels effort and noted that last year kids at Mabel Rush made Valentines cards for the recipients and also noted that she volunteers at the Resource Rooms and that this year they will have the kids at the resource rooms help make Valentines Cards.
Kathy: First Federal started the customer ballot program for their customers. This is their annual program where Customers get to submit for which 2 charities they would like to get some of the $40,000 of donation funds up for grabs. Also noted that last week FF awarded a $5,000 grant to Reach NorthWest which helps foster families with emergency placements who are in need to carseats, stollers, etc.
Auggie: Contributed as an expression of gratitude to his wife for many happy years together.
Mike: Shared that he was supposed to be in New York this week as his son, a playwrite in NYU, entered a play they wrote for a competition and won. Their play will be read and sung by professionals but COVID has pushed it back to April.
Paula: Welcomed the youngest guest, River Knight. So well behaved!
Ralph: Donated for Polio and noted that he participated in his first political rally last week exercising, his rights and proudly expressing his religious beliefs.
Shannon K: While on vacation in Florida, her husband’s team, the Cheifs, lost and she is relieved to not have to dedicate weekends to football.
~ Today’s Program: City of Newberg ARPA Grant with Shannon Buckmaster ~
Shannon Buckmaster, the Economic Health Manager for the City of Newberg, is presenting on behalf of the City an update on the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funds received by the the City of Newberg. This $5.3 Million Dollars is Federal Dollars that was passed through the state to the City of Newberg to be used within specific means. This was passed in March of 2021 and includes direct financial support to all sorts of public entities to support support local fiscal stability and economic recovery. There are rules related to how to spend it in order to keep the funds forward looking. There are also rules that ensure that the funds are spent in a responsible, well thought out manner with a window of just 4 years to use it.
Will Worthey, the Interim City Manager is designing and managing this process to keep fairness and transparency as a focus. The process is open to internal City Departments, Local Business, or other public entities to apply for a project or specific use of the funds. The projects proposed must meet the guidelines of the APRA program and are submitted through a 2 page application which is submitted to Will Worthey and gets reviewed by a committee that includes but is not limited to Shannon, the Finance Manager, the Bilingual Communications specialist, and a new temporary employee Paul, who was hired as part of this program to help manage and research the uses of the moneys. They check projects to ensure they follow guidelines, feasibility, etc. If it is approved, the applicants must go through the process demanded by Federal Regulations. Finally, the projects get ultimately accepted and approved by the City of Newberg Budget Committee, which includes all of the City Councilors as well as 7 Citizen members. A digital Scoring Matrix is used to evaluate the submitted projects and the whole process is specifically in compliance with public meeting laws in an attempt to promote transparency and fairness. The whole program is broken up into 3 phases, the first of which has already passed, but the second is coming up in a few weeks on Feb 23, and phase 3 is March 30 (almost full, so hurry and get your applications in). Accommodations are made for Spanish speaking applicants or applicants with limited access to the internet. Shannon and Paul are available to assist applicants with any questions or clarifications needed.
Phase 1 projects that were accepted included for a total of $1.7 million:
- Funding the temporary staff member Paul who is assisting with the administration of the grant
- Reduction in SDC Fees for an incoming hotel (approx 69 rooms) that will generate long term revenue for the General Fund and Tourism
- Essential City Staff payment – paid to essential City Employees to honor the service they have given during COVID
- Fund Finance Software upgrade. The new system will save a lot of processing time and replace redundant and inefficient paper-based processing, which will lead to long term savings though increased efficiency and system stability for the City.
- YCAP Homeless Support
- Updates to IT Servers and IT Security at the City
- Downtown Local Gift Card system. This will allow you to buy a gift card that can be used at a variety of local businesses, which aims to support buying local
- Improvements to HVAC and Air Purification Systems
To learn more about the City’s ARPA Funds, especially to submit a project for consideration, you can visit the City website https://www.newbergoregon.gov/finance/page/american-rescue-plan-act-arpa-funds-city-newberg, or contact Shannon Buckmaster.
Check your e-mails for Mike Caruso’s Zoom meeting access information.
~ Joke of the Day ~
What do you call a Magician who lost his Magic?
Ian.
~ Happy Quotes! ~
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
– Socrates
~ Published 2/8/2022: Dan Keuler, Newsletter Editor ~
