In review

Posted by Doug Johnson on Mar 21, 2017
 
 
Over 100 Rotarians gathered for our weekly meeting in the midst of March Madness and the day before St. Patrick’s Day.
 
Our feature presentation was about The Avenue on France by Bob Erickson, senior development manager for the developer Wildamere, and Dean Devolis, chief architect.
 
For more on the meeting, click on the link below...

 
 
Bob Erickson and Dean Devolis talked about The Avenue on France, which is located on the space between 66th Street, France Avenue and Valley View Road (just south of Point of France). It is a project comparable in size and scope to The West End in St. Louis Park. Specifically it will include the existing office buildings, a hotel, Bank of America, retail, residential, additional office space and, very important to many people—Tavern on France.
 
Overall the project will consist of over 500,000 new square feet and an investment of over $125 million. A good summary of the project by The Business Journal can be found here.
 
Other meeting highlights include:
 
The birth announcement of Hudson Lawrence Azbill at 9 pounds 4 ounces. Parents are Rotarian Brandon Azbill and his wife,  Lauren Azbill.
Dan Hare shared his classification talk. His wife, Amy Hare, was his guest and helped him greet members and guests before the meeting. He was born in Richfield but moved to Edina in eighth grade. He graduated from Edina West High School, along with fellow Rotarian Mitch Robinson. He then attended North Dakota State University. After graduation, he was a manufacturers representative for 28 years and then moved on to a career in real estate. He is married to Amy, has two children and resides in Edina.
 
Steve Buettner introduced two students from Edina High School. Tyler Ramierez and Piper Gibbs. Piper wowed the crowd by noting that she is a circus performer and specializes in aerial acts.
 
We welcomed as guests to our meeting:
 
  • Jim Fisher, guest of Jody Kern
  • Don Andersen, guest of Dave Hatzung
  • Mike Andersen, guest of Dave Hatzung
  • Jennifer Shinners, guest of John Buttolph
  • Stephanie Lee, guest of David Aase
  • Amy Hare, wife and guest of Dan Hare
  • Claudio Huerta, Youth Exchange student and guest of Ian Colville
  • Jeff Wasjc, visiting Rotarian from the Plymouth Rotary Club
  • Andrea Humphrey, visiting Rotarian from Edina Morningside Rotary Club
Of course, none of the above would have happened without the selfless minions who toiled under the benevolent leadership of President Ann Platt. Her helpers included: greeters—Jim Roberts and Dan Hare; front desk—Charles Rauenhorst; Invocation, Pledge of Allegiance and Four-Way Test—Bob Gubrud; guest introductions—Hannelore Brucker; speaker introduction—The Paul Peterson; speaker thank you—David Aase; and The Barker by yours truly, Doug Johnson.
 
Have a wonderful week and “May the Force be With You!”