September 15, 2016 - Sixteen members attended and heard a presentation from local meteorologist Bob Quinn. He described weather prediction as a combination of science and mystic art. His prediction for this winter: significant snow pack in the mountains and mild winter at lower elevation. While there is global warming, we can still have cold, nasty winters. This year we are experiencing a La Nina weather pattern.
September 8, 2016- Seventeen members heard updates on the officer installation dinner, planned for an interclub visit to Medical Lake and signed up to collect or distribute coats for the Community Coat drive.
Tom Capul, EWU professor in computer science spoke about the computer science program. It has been nationally accredited since 1987, has 13 full-time faculty and about 400 students. Some senior capstone projects have student teams build software for free for local groups. Past projects included rebuilding the Spokane County crime check web site and an EWU advocacy website directed to state legislators. If a capstone project is built for a business and money is earned, a percentage goes to the department. One guest was also present.
September 1, 2016 - Seventeen members attended; we had updates on the proceeds of the Blackhawk/Kiwanis golf tournament and information on Kiwanis dues for 2016-17. We agreed to have no meeting on October 20 since we will have our officer installation dinner on Friday, October 21.
Member Mark Eckerich brought a WW2 Jeep for us to see. Before we looked at it he gave some history of the development and use of the Jeeps. The federal government gave 4 companies a one-month timeframe to design a vehicle for military use. A total of over 600,000 Jeeps were built by Willys and Ford. Some unique features of a WW2 Jeep: it had blackout headlights and the headlights could swivel to light up the engine for repairs; the instruction manual included extensive instructions on how to destroy it if it was in danger of being seized by the enemy and it had an 11 gallon radiator. Civilian use Jeeps had a tail gate and outside gas filler; military models had no tail gate and the gas fill was under the driver's seat.
August 25, 2016 - Seventeen members and one guest attended the meeting. We got preliminary information on the officer installation dinner and learned that the Community Coat drive collection period will be September 12 through October 7 and distribution will be at Salnave Elementary on October 15.
Todd Ableman, Public Works Director for the City of Cheney gave a presentation on water usage, supply and future plans to reuse water for irrigation of city parks and school district property. There is a major green belt from the city pool past the high school and Betz Elementary to the 50 acre park. During irrigation season the system's maximum capacity is almost completely used and that is why residents have been asked to follow an alternating day irrigation schedule, based on house number.
New housing and apartment construction may require drilling an additional well to provide adequate water supply. He also talked about sidewalk disability ramps being changed to comply with federal requirements so the city can request federal grants for future street and paving projects. The city is also updating water mains crossing First street so the work is done before the state does a new surface overlay in 2017.
