President Carol Duris rang the bell at 12:05pm for the weekly meeting of Tacoma #8 Rotary at the Tacoma Yacht Club.
Miriam Barnett, YWCA gave the invocation focusing on words that matter.
Past President Steve Smith, Black Education Strategy Roundtable, led us by singing and playing the national anthem.
A card was being circulated for
Past President Jim Whitacre who was in the hospital. Mics were brought around for Visiting Rotarians and Guests by
Robin Echtle, Tacoma Lutheran Retirement Center Foundation and
Jace Dwinell, Heritage Bank. There were a number of guests at the meeting.
Today’s meeting sponsor, Sharon Chambers Gordon, Raising Girls, came forward and briefly shared some of the good work that the organization does for girls in the South Sound. From inspirational messages to providing personal hygiene products, the group helps girls in the South Sound. President Carol then asked Tim Smith, Custom Impressions to come forward for a paid announcement, inviting everyone to a free show coming up at Fircrest Golf Club. Service Anniversaries were then celebrated for members celebrating three years all the way up to thirty years. In attendance to celebrate were Christina Turner and Kathy Martin.
Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards then came to the podium to introduce today’s speaker, Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff. He has been a leading transit executive for more than a decade. From 2009-2014 he led the Federal Transportation Administration and from 2014-2016 was Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy at the Dept. of Transportation Since coming to Sound Transit, he has been overseeing the largest transit expansion in North America, building 4 billion dollars, 116 mile regional rapid transit network. He spent the bulk of his remarks on what Sound Transit is doing in Pierce County, where there is nonstop action, including the Tacoma Link expansion, with six new Tacoma Link Stations which will open in 2022. He said ridership on Light Rail is growing fast and that the planning process on the extension from Federal Way to Tacoma has begun.
He said that the Tacoma Dome is the largest multi-modal hub in the state and the Sounder South is the fastest growing with 26 trains daily, and daily boarding’s are up. He said that there are 1,000 workers within Pierce County working on Pierce County Sound Transit projects. The light rail segment from Federal Way to Tacoma is an over two billion investment. The route will run 20 hours each day seven days a week. This will create a new transit network for Pierce County. This will all help provide jobs within Pierce County. He wants a complete and comprehensive network of transportation. He wants it convenient to passenger, but knows the construction of the Tacoma extension has inconvenienced businesses and residents. Mr. Rogoff then took some questions from the audience. After the presentation President Carol thanked Mr. Rogoff and let him know in acknowledgement of his presentation a gift would be made in his honor to the Tacoma Rotary Foundation.
John Douville then came forward thanking everyone for the assembling last week of the back packs and inviting members to help distribute them to students next Friday, September 6 at Arlington Elementary School at 8:15. President Carol thanked Miriam for the invocation, Steve for the music and Sharon for being our meeting sponsor. Tonight’s social will be at The Hub in Gig Harbor, 1208 28th Ave NW.
The speaker at next week’s meeting will be David Bean, Chairman of the Council for the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. Ending the meeting at 12:55 pm, President Carol urged everyone to go out and be People of Action.
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