High Gear for February 23, 2015 reported by Lage Andersen

Posted by Scott Hartley 
 
Visiting Rotarians/Guests of Club:
  • Visiting Rotarians:
  • Ken Housley, from the San Mateo Sunrise Club, Ken is a former Burlingame Rotarian.  Ken announced the “Community Yard Sale” on Saturday March 14th at 2555 Flores Street, in San Mateo. Ken left us the attached flyer for the Community Yard Sale.
  • Scott Hart, past president of the San Bruno club.
  • Guests of Rotarians:
  • Doctor Jo Whitehouse, the guest of her spouse, Mike Heffernan
  • Mary Griffith, guest of her spouse, Walt Ramseur
 
  • Guests of the Club:
  • There were no Guests of the Club this week.
 
Announcements:
  • Jennifer Pence announced that she will pursue us to gather auction items for the May 2nd Kentucky Derby Party.  Jennifer passed out an auction item donation sheet and a letter to be given or sent by Rotarians to business owners soliciting donations or auction items.  A copy of Jennifer’s letter and the auction item donation sheet are attached to this High Gear.
  • Joy Huetteman and Sean Williams asked for volunteers to serve at the May 2nd Kentucky Derby Party, and the following Rotarians volunteered for service:
  • Mike Kimball - Horse Betting
  • Rose Camarena - Corporate Sponsor’s
  • Marylyn Orr, John Delaney, and Barry Parker - Welcome Table
  • Cheryl Fama, Lisa Goldman and Linna Golodriga - Drink Ticket Sales
  • Rose Camarena - Trophy Coordination
  • Peter Comaroto, Duffy Offield, Ricardo Ortiz, and Mary Murphy - Judging
  • The next meeting of the Kentucky Derby Party committee is at Mary Murphy’s office at 4:00 p.m.
 
Maki Kobayashi announced the Board of Directors has approved the new summer student exchange program with our sister club in Edogawa, Japan.  This year 4 students from BHS and Mercy High School will be hosted by the Edogawa club in Tokyo from July 24th thru August 2nd.  The students will have 12 hours of enrichment classes for introduction to Japanese language and culture before departing for Tokyo.  Peter Comaroto announced that Mercy High School is looking for volunteers to host Japanese exchange students this summer.
 
Jo Whitehouse and Frances Boscacci announced that donations to the Borneo Project are still a few thousand dollars short of the $30,000 goal.  Jo Whitehouse told us that, enough money had been raised to build the hospital, and that the hospital project broke ground in June.  Frances is looking for a few more donations from Rotarians to reach our $30,000 goal.
 
Sunshine Report:
  • Jim Shypertt was pleased to report that Chuck Voltz has returned to good health after surgery to implant a pace maker and a defibrillator hooked up to Chuck’s heart.  Welcome back Bionic Chuck!
Newscast:
Rotary President-In-Waiting Barry Parker gave a Newscast entitled The Future Is Coming! (Some of you may have been aware that the future is coming, but it certainly surprised this Reporter.)  Barry’s Newscast consisted of a series of really bad predictions and skeptical statements by knowledgeable people that new inventions, such as the automobile, the radio, the copy machine, and the computer were unlikely ever to be useful to anybody.  Barry called for us to apply our imagination to make the coming Rotary year successful for our club.
 
Program and Speaker:  
 
  • Emily Mathews introduced our speaker, Ricci (pronounced “Richie”) Graham.
  • Mr. Graham is the Northern Regional Informational Officer for the High Speed Rail.  Mr. Graham’s talk was entitled “High Speed Rail: A Transformational Investment in California’s Future.”
  • The title slide of Mr. Graham’s presentation said that it was given to the “Rotary Club of Burlington” at the “San Francisco Hyatt.” (One can only hope that more attention to detail will be applied to the construction of the High Speed Rail project itself.)
 
  • Mr. Graham began with a macro view that California is the 8th largest economy in the world, and the land between San Francisco and Los Angeles is comparable in distance, and population to the northeast corridor from Boston through New York down to Washington D.C.  He suggested that the High Speed Rail system would be transformational by connecting poor economic areas in the Central Valley with the economies of the Bay Area, The Central Coast area and the Los Angeles area.
  • Mr. Graham said that “transformational projects are never easy.” 
    • For example, the Golden Gate Bridge had more than 2,000 lawsuits filed to try to stop it.
    • BART was referred to as “the train to nowhere.”
    • The University of California system and the California State Water project were both approved by a margin of only a single vote in the California Legislature.
  • Mr. Graham said that High Speed Rail would curb congestion. At this time, one of six flights in the San Francisco Bay Area goes to L.A.  Six of the top 30 congested areas are located in California and California’s population is expected to expand by 50,000,000 people by 2050.  High Speed Rail would improve air quality by getting people off the roads.  Mr. Graham said that the High Speed Rail system would be equivalent of an additional 4,300 miles of new highway lanes, and 115 airport gates.
  • High Speed Rail has reached these key milestones:
  • Funding of $8,000,000,000 ($3,300,000,000 from the Federal Government and $4,700,000,000 from California Proposition 1A).  This amount of funding will only fund the “Initial Construction Section” from Merced to Bakersfield.
  • Funding of 25% of “Cap and Trade” proceeds, expected to be $250,000,000 per year.
  • Environmental clearances
  • Construction Contract #1 for 30 miles of track between Merced and Bakersfield, was signed in August of 2013.  Construction Contracts #2 and #3 for the construction of the rail line from Fresno to Tulare County are scheduled to be signed in June of 2015.
  • Ground has been broken and work is underway.
  • The High Speed Rail system is to be constructed by working on multiple unconnected segments concurrently.  The early work is expected to be done on these sections:
  • San Francisco to San Jose
  • Fresno to Bakersfield
  • Burbank to Los Angeles
  • The total cost of the High Speed Rail system is currently estimated to be $68,000,000,000. Mr. Graham said that one goal of the project is to provide jobs for Californians, including small businesses and the economically disadvantaged.
  • Questions from the Rotarians focused on the impact of High Speed Rail on the Peninsula and particularly in Burlingame.  In general, the questions from Rotarians were hostile to High Speed Rail.
  • Chuck Voltz questioned Mr. Graham on the lack of funding for elevating or undergrounding the 42 grade crossing on the Peninsula.  Mr. Graham provided no specifics, but said that High Speed Rail will work with local communities for solutions to community concerns.  Mr. Graham said that the “CBOSS/PTC” system would prevent accidents at grade crossings.  The acronym CBOSS/PTC stands for “Communications Based Overlay Signal System/Positive Train Control.”
Mr. Graham gave his email address and offered to provide information and attempt to answer questions: which is ricci.graham@hsr.ca.gov.
The High Speed Rail website is www.hsr.ca.gov.