TODAY
Facilities & Community Service Director, Municipal Utilities & Engineering Director, and Assistant City Manager CHRIS BOATMAN will be our speaker. CHRIS can be depended on to give an interesting presentation and has always provided relevant and coherent information about the occasionally irrelevant and incoherent municipal drama(s) in Redlands. We look forward to hearing the latest news on the occupation of City Hall, the “K-Cops” headquarters on Redlands Boulevard, and every other municipal affair about which our members will probe.
LAST WEEK
JERRY TESSLER of ARTCO Partners talked about the Redlands’ Public Market, a development for the adaptive reuse of the Mutual Orange Distributors packing house first built in 1890. At the beginning, there were a great many issues with the building including outdated wiring and plumbing, a lack of a solid foundation, and unreinforced brick walls inside and out. Jerry admitted that this MOD Packing House was “the worst building we’ve ever renovated.” Fortunately, ARTCO had a great deal of experience repurposing more than 25 underused and dilapidated properties in Pomona, Riverside, and other jurisdictions, and the project in our town began in 2019 with permits pulled in March 2020, just in time for the national lockdown over the COVID scare. The project is now back on track and slated to “soft-open” in the Fall of this year. There will be 50+specialty food vendor spaces in the 30,000 square foot venue, and many tenants have already committed to set up shop there, including brew pubs and ethnic food and fusion establishments. The completion and successful occupation of the Redlands Public Market will be another important milestone in the revitalization of the downtown area and a boon to City revenue.
NEXT WEEK
DR. CHRISTOPHER WALKER will most likely explain and discuss Rotary Club of Redlands Scholarship programs and initiatives, including who gets what, where the money comes from, why and how we’ve done it in the past, and why we continue to do it. Maybe he’ll grace us with a rendition made famous during his days as a Communicative Disorders professor at the U of R, that of an inveterate stutterer.
ART IN THE PARK WAS A HIT FOR MANY REASONS Kudos to LYNN WHITMER, SHIRLEY HARRY, and multitude Rotarians who planned and helped execute another wonderful showcase promoting the art scene in Redlands last weekend. The presence of so many volunteers and sponsors was testimony to the community spirit we exemplify as individuals and members of RCOR. Besides reinforcing Redlands as a long-standing oasis of creative artistic expression, the event provided an opportunity to explore and support the matchless Redlands Smiley Library and Lincoln Shrine to citizens and visitors, and certainly the sales tax collected at the event and other Redlands nearby businesses was a nice benefit. We look forward to next Memorial Day Weekend!
TOUCH-A-TRUCK IS 9 DAYS AWAY!
Our first TAT street banner should appear over Cajon and Citrus (not necessarily in that order) this week and next. Take pictures and share on your social media pages, please! Also, the final pre-event meeting of the TAT committee and any interested parties next Wednesday evening at Casa NOLIN at 5:30. RSVPs are appreciated. ALLAN GREISEMER is still taking day-of-event volunteer names, so let him know how you can help if you haven’t already, and sponsorships are still gratefully accepted.
ROTARIAN GENEROSITY NEVER ENDS!
BILL MCCALMON has added his 1957 T-Bird to the RCOR Touch-A-Truck display! He will be out of town on the 8th, so we have recruited a driver’s ed student from the Probation Department’s Juvenile Diversion program to pick the classic Ford up at the unoccupied MCCALMON abode and deliver it to a spot of honor with RON HELBRON’S Porche and JOHN PATTERSON’S RV next to the Kona Ice truck. We’ll stage them all in the Kids’ Zone and near the Paint-A-Truck exhibit so more kids will have a chance to enjoy them fully.
MAY 30TH – TODAY IN AWFUL HISTORY
In 1972, three members of the Japanese Red Army recruited by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine attacked Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport) near Tel Aviv, killing 26 people and injuring 80 others. Two of the attackers were killed, while a third, K?z? Okamoto, was captured after being wounded. Because airport security was focused on the possibility of a Palestinian attack, the Japanese attackers took the guards by surprise.
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
Today is National Jennifer Day! Does that mean we all have to pay homage to Past-Pres JEN DANIEL?! I think I’ll celebrate the other national day that marks today: National Mint Julep Day. That’s the only reason why I have mint in the garden! Did everyone else enjoy the busy, fun-filled weekend of events here in town? I saw SHIRLEY HARRY working the Festival of Arts, along with BARBARA O’KEEFE (staffing the beer and wine booth, no surprise there). And caught the Redlands Community Orchestra concert where one could spot ERIC GRENIER on the French Horn. What a packed Memorial Day Weekend!
Editor – Jim Nolin – Edition No. 47 – May 30, 2024