Louisa Rotary met for its weekly meeting on Thursday, March 16th. The meeting began with the traditional prayer, Pledge of Allegiance and reciting The Four Way Test. There were no birthday’s or anniversary’s for the Rotarians; however, I announced my anniversary of sobriety for March 15th.
Rotary president Lindsey Case announced that she has some LCHS students that will be donating their Saturday and taking a trip to Lexington, Ky. to be a part of “Hope For Haiti”. The Southland Christian Church packed one million meals last year and hopes to do the same this year. Volunteers are welcome on April 28th and 29th at their Richmond Road Campus.
Packing the meals consists of volunteers gathering around a funnel to fill bags with rice, soy, dried vegetables and vitamins. The bags are then weighed to make sure they contain a specified weight for uniform distribution. They are then sealed to give the food a 3 year old shelf life though the food will be eaten long before then.
Finally the bags are sealed, boxed, palletized and then loaded onto a truck or container for their final voyage overseas. The meals will be distributed through partners at lifeline Christian Missions to schools, churches, and orphanages in Haiti. This will feed 3,500 kids and provide the nutrition they need every day for an entire year. Miss Case, a teacher at Lawrence County High, is very active in showing her students how to be a active volunteer in their community and help those in need. GOOD JOB LCHS STUDENTS!
Moran tells Rotary about State Road Dept. services
The speaker for the week was the head of the Lawrence Co. Transportation Department, Todd Moran. He spoke on many of the aspects of his job along with his 19 man crew. He reiterated that his crew does not build new roads, but they maintain the ones that are already there. Lawrence County has 480 miles of two and four lane roads to maintain.
The state roads are split into 3 classes according to the amount of traffic that travels them.
Class A is considered the highest priority roads, and are the first to get any attention when it comes to pot holes, snow removal or any other maintenance, Class B and C follow. Moran also explained that an average snowfall takes 240 tons of salt (sodium chloride), not including the calcium chloride. He explained that every bit of salt saved (funds) is new blacktop to pave and patch roads. Therefore a mild winter helps county to have better roads in the summer.
He said the department is looking into cheaper alternatives to keep our roads clear in the winter, such as potato and beet juice. Rotarians expressed appreciation to Moran and the road department for their hard work to keep our roads accessible and working so well with the Board of Education to eliminate the days of school missed.
The meeting was then adjourned for the week.