By Barbara ScottStaff Writer
The Limestone Rotary Club has a new meeting location. The first meeting held to dedicate this new site was a breakfast meeting held recently with an enthusiastic group in attendance. The new meeting placeis located adjacent to the Flight Line Café on the former Loring Air Force Base.
“Carl Flora, of the Loring Development Association, offered us this room,” stated Rotarian Larry Zenzius. “He said the space was ours if the Rotary would be responsible for any remodeling of the area. We engaged Loring Job Corps students to complete the carpentry, painting and electrical work. Ray Mulherin did all the finish work and Chanel Bernier installed the necessary heating requirements,” he added.
Following the formal dedication of the meeting room, Rotary President Cliff Rhome addressed the members and guests and publically thanked Zenzius, “Larry’s a salesman, he got Carl to provide the materials we needed, then got the Job Corp students to do the work.”
“It was a three-month project, said Zenzius, “but we’ve never lost a meeting.”
The Limestone Rotary has dealt with relocation troubles in the past. For many years they met in the basement of Kelley’s Restaurant on Main Street, when the new owner opened Sarah’s at the same site. They continued to meet there but when that business closed in 2007, they were left to find another meeting location.
After the downtown business closed, Flora offered the group an available room to meet in while they found a permanent location and from there the new meeting room came into reality.
Although a relatively small Rotary Club, with 12 members, this group has very ambitious goals and a proven track record.
“We’re here for the lifetime,” said Zenzius, “we hope to have more members join us as individuals become part of the Loring Commerce Centre.”We have breakfast meetings at 7 a.m., so it allows for our members to attend the meetings but not be delayed getting to work.”
Flora added, “This new home is a good sign for your club, and should help gravitate new members. “
Recently the Rotary pledged funds for a new kitchenette to be created in the soon-to-be expanded Robert A. Frost Public Library.
The Limestone Rotary is currently involved in a clock project which will, with pledges and purchases from community members and business, allow them to establish a community park on a parcel of land in Limestone currently owned by the Irving company. The park, which has already been designed, would feature a gazebo, six streetlights and a town clock. The streetlights and any necessary landscaping work would be donated, creating no cost to the community.
The clock project, which the Rotarians are working on, involves a 14-foot clock which chimes on the hour. Pledges to go toward the purchase of the town clock are available in $250, $500 or $750 increments. Currently the club has raised $5,000 toward the $14,000 cost.
Rotarians remind community members interested in this project that a specific amount toward the clock does not have to be paid outright, but as a pledge is fulfilled over a designated period of time.
Staff photos Barbara Scott
The Limestone Rotary Club recently celebrated the dedication of a new meeting location. The meeting room is located next to the Flightline Cafe, on the former Loring Air Force Base. Limestone Rotarians are currently working on a project that will see a town clock, left, purchased for the community. They are offering sponsorship opportunities to residents, businesses and other interested groups.
