April 17, 2024 Breakfast Meeting Note
We had a busy program this morning and lots of guests, so Tony’s famous NH Trivia will have to wait until next week.
Guests: Susan, Steve, Lisa and Alex signed in from Ukraine. Ella Ducette and her family were brought by Scott Weden. Other guests included Courtney van Etten (our speaker) as well as Rotarian Yvonne from Hudson Mass, with her friends the Charlies (they own summer home in Rumney). Prospective member Paul Lamoreaux was also in attendance,
50/50 was won by Ken Evans.
Lora won the chance to draw for the ace but pulled the 8 of hearts. The game continues.
Scott Weden introduced Ella Duchette, pictured above. She is a freshman at PRHS who is working on her Girl Scout gold project. She wants to focus on global issues of social isolation and loneliness and so she is trying to build a sense of community, to make people aware of services provided by Senior Center and Parks and Rec. Her project is two new welcome signs for Plymouth to be located on Route 3 just south and just north of downtown. The cost is $3250 per sign and she has already raised almost enough for both signs; she only needs another $800. Her fundraisers have included bringing in PRHS students to play live music at the senior center, sponsoring a pickleball fundraiser, and holding an open gym event so kids could play. Lincoln Signs is making the signs and the town beautification committee will help clean up the areas where they are to be placed.
Business: There will be a board meeting this Friday at 7 am. We will cover the admin committee report.
On May 2, we will gather for happy hour at 5 pm at the Brew House and then move to the Sunset Grill at 6:15 for dinner. Please note that this is a Thursday evening, not a Wednesday.
Tony will bring Citizen of the Year nominee list for us to discuss. Also next week Greg will bring his trail volunteer signup sheets. The following week Beth will bring signups for Circle Cleanup on May 18-19. You can go to Rotarycleans.org to sign up for the Kanc cleanup on June 1.
Denise reported that she spoke to Lisa Lundari, Steve and Alex about the Plymouth Historic Society’s 50th anniversary celebration on May 18. They will be looking for a little help with the food service down on the Common on that day for the event, to be held between 11 and 2 pm. It will raise money for the historical society. Permitting is all done.
Sharon noted that she has finally received the scholarship applications She has 40-45 including 4 previous recipients. She will scan them all and send them out to the committee, which includes Nancy, Ken and Lora, and maybe Tony. See her if you would like to help.
Our speaker today was introduced by George. Courtney van Etten has been working in fitness for over 24 years. She started out as a personal trainer, but she developed musculoskeletal pain and began to work as a postural therapist. She continues to work with people as owner of Functional Fitness at 68 Main Street in downtown Plymouth.
Injuries, accidents, and overuse can lead to a malalignment of our joints and over time this will lead to pain. She aims to bring more functional balance to people with chronic pain, including athletes, children, the elderly and anyone else who needs it. She gave us a brief exercise in which we tried to assess our balance and weight distribution before and after exercising. Her work is not covered by insurance. She left business cards out in case anyone is interested in her services.
Alicia reported that the admin committee met on Monday. The committee members have gotten a lot of feedback about need for connectedness and places to gather (for sports and other activities), as well as mental health, housing and transportation. Once we have finished all the interviews we will have a community charette and come to a decision on what our project should be.The tentative plans are to hold one charette onJune 13 at 6 pm at the Senior Center and on June 15 abut 2 pm at the high school. We will invite the community too discuss and participate to decide what we will do. Scott will announce these event in the town newsletter and post them on the town website. It will also be in the newspaper and on DiscoverPlymouthNH.org.
The Tuesday trade talks have generated so much interest that they have decided to extend the program They average 20-25 kids per session.
Braden asked Scott to give an update on Main St Construction. Equipment is being mobilized this week and they will start at Warren and Russell streets next Monday, resurfacing the road and redoing sidewalks. They will come north to Highland Street. This should be 6 to 8 week project. Then they will go back to the roundabout and go back north on Main Street and hopefully be done by the last 2 weeks of July. The section of Main Street between the roundabout and Highland Street will be done by the Water and Sewer department.
Scott does a weekly construction email and if you’d like to be included on this, contact him. They send this out to the college, downtown businesses etc. Lighting will be revised in the future after a feasibility study. Highland Street will be reconstructed from Reservoir Rd down to Russell Street by Plymouth Water and Sewer next summer. The plan is for a roundabout at Reservoir Road.
Ken asked about Calgary Baptist Church. They are still operating as a school for 2 students. The town has tried to see if they could use their facility as a recreational facility but they are not willing to let the town purchase it. The town is are looking at a police and fire building that would have a community room. They are preparing a feasibility study on a site off of Highland Street for this. Selectpersons Zach Tyrell and Marianne Barnsley are both on the committee to build the new police and fire station, if we have questions about it.
Happy Dollars were shared by Ben, Mike, Walter, Tony, and Denise.
Respectfully submitted,
Lora Miller, secretary