March 14, 2008

The Tar Wheel: March Madness Edition

There he was, Billy Packer, larger than life, present at an Asheboro Rotary meeting! Our speaker? A guest of the club? Not exactly: but we had him on TV, anyway. That’s 21st century technology bringing the ACC tournament to the Rotary meeting; when Chapel Hill plays Florida State starting at noon, we either have Mike Lee’s projection TV going, or half the club would be elsewhere! At least we were able to watch until our speaker needed the TV for his powerpoint show…

Not so many regular guests, probably for the obvious reason; Jim Campbell was visiting from the Wednesday club, and Jerry Haywood from the Sandhills club. Bill Batten brought along his business associates from Mexico, Andres Tostado and Hugo Matamoros. But we had double the usual student guests: Elizabeth Johnson, daughter of Duffy and Donna, is the editor of the Ash-High-Chat, plays for the varsity golf team (would we expect less in that family?), and will be attending Phifer this fall to play gold and study Public Relations and Journalism. Kathryn Lail, daughter of Dean and Kay Lail and grandaughter of Jack, is in the band, plays tennis and piano, and will be attending NC State to study “museum work,” or what they officially call in academic circles “Public History.” Julie Sheffield, guidance counselor at Southwest Randolph, was here to shepherd her students. Selection seems to have been based on (1) size and (2) last name: Elton Dale Cranford is the son of Scott and Kenna Cranford of Seagrove, is VP of the SWR FFA, plays baseball, likes fishing and NASCAR, and attends Trinity Wesleyan Church. He’ll be attending NC State to study engineering. Sam Cranford (no relation, but he has our sympathies for being burdened with the name of our PDG) is the son of Tony and Sheila, plays basketball and golf for the school and attends Oak Grove Methodist Church. He’ll be going to UNC-Chapel Hill in the fall.

President HR started us out with a moment of silence to honor the passing of our own Don Durham, a member of the club since May, 1960, when he was sponsored by Barron Mills. Don died March 13th, survived by his sons Carey (former president of this club) and Rick (still running the family business, Durham Printing, now in its 61st year in operation. See Don’s Courier-Tribune obituary here: http://www.courier-tribune.com/articles/2008/03/21/obituaries/293obits031408.txt

Richard Garkalns reminded us that the Human Race tomorrow will benefit the Volunteer Center. President HR reminded one and all that there will be NO ROTARY next week, Friday being Good Friday. He went on to read us Tar Wheel History from January 31, 1973, where former president John O.H. Toledano was presiding over an Honest Count of the votes for new officers, and someone stole his pencil.

Owen George (star of the District 7690 TV commercial now popping up at odd times on cable TV), introduced our guest Kevin Redding, executive director of the Piedmont Land Conservancy, based in Greensboro. (Us oldsters remember several years ago when Kevin came to talk, representing the competition: he was formerly in charge of the Asheboro/ Uwharrie office of the Land Trust for Central North Carolina, based in Salisbury. Kevin has a degree in Natural Resource Management, is married to Lori, has a son Boone aged 2 1/2, and a daughter on the way.

PNC does a lot of work in central North Carolina, such as preserving the 1,000-acre Saddle Mountain tract on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Mitchell River, cleanest stream in the Piedmont, both in Surry County. They’ve also been adding land to Hanging Rock State Park, and preserving Emily Allen’s wildflower garden in Winston Salem, where 7200 varieties of flower will be in bloom around April 12th (not coincidentally, the date of their open house, from 2-5PM : call 691-0008 for reservations).

In Randolph County Kevin and PNC have cooperated with the Zoo in the preservation of the Ridge’s Mountain tract (which, BTW, ought to have 2 or 3 times as much property included for real protection, but we’ll take what we can get since there’s no county parks department). Their primary focus in Randolph has been in the northeast corner of the county, where our so-called Agricultural Preservation District is located (so-called because it’s just a label on a map when developers want to situate a subdivision there- editorial comment). Former Olympian Col . Guy Troy was one of the first to convey an easement to PNC which preserves his family farm for agricultural uses. Since then, the Williams Dairy, the Goat Lady Dairy, and other farmers have donated or sold such easements to PNC. It’s part of the “slow-food” movement to protect family farms and promote the growing of local produce and livestock; it’s also, as Kevin points out, a national security issue, at a time when we should be concerned about food contamination in products being shipped from half a world away.

October 26, 2007

Asheboro Rotary Goes on a Field Trip!

This was a special day for Asheboro Rotary- for only the second or third time Your Scribe can remember, we all went on a Field Trip. A Grown-Up Field Trip, for sure: No buses, no permission slips from home, and the cook-out van from ever-faithful AVS followed us for comfort’s sake.

Dale Lambert and Randolph Electric Membership Corporation were our off-site hosts for the day, and they even made the rainy weather interesting. It was hard to complain, what with the third day of rain in the current drought being our first real rain in about four months. But REMC put on a show that made the rain look like it was part of the demonstration.

We started out inside, in the company break room, or cafeteria , where hot dogs and hamburgers cooked outside on the AVS grill were the order of the day . Long-time REMC employees like Dave Rowe and Fred Smith guided us to our seats. Helpful party favors were at each place : an REMC rain guage, a necessity for this day, but a practical joke gift in prior weeks.

Allen Holt, retired CEO of REMC (if you don’t like acronyms, go away today) led us in the Four Way Test (though Alan Pugh was ready, willing and able). The Democrat Allen, however, held the floor and reminded us that the 4WT was written in 1932 and adopted by RI in 1943. He also led us in the Pledge of Allegiance, and reminded us that it was “to the REPUBLIC for which it stands,” not “to the RepubliCANS.”

One Guest: Chris Yow, Randolph Club and Asheboro City School board member, here for an obvious reason to follow. Student guests from AHS: Rebecca Yow, daughter of Chris andJennifer Newton Yow, who is involved in a lot of stuff and intends to go to college and major in Physical Therapy (Your Scribe didn’t get the info sheets, so my notes didn’t catch all their good works). On the distaff side was Drew Brisley, son of Klaussner’s Peter Brisley, who’s into tennis and snowboarding and plans to attend NCSU to study industrial design.

Phil Shore rose to remind us of the current local theater production, “Mornings At Seven,” which begins this weekend at the Sunset Theater and stars Himself with our own Jerry Hill, and has Elizabeth Mitchell working offstage. It’s at 7:30 Friday and Saturday, with a 2:30 matinee on Sunday. Phil asserted that the 1939 play is a “gentle comedy… continuously amusing but you don’t know why.” Sounds like our brand of humor.

Phil also claimed that he was missing the batteries for his free rain guage, but the inscrutible yet continuously amusing Allen Holt saved the day by reminding us that REMC rain guages are all “solar powered.”

President HR read a joke from the Tar Wheel of December 16, 1954, where a teacher demanded that her kindergarten class “hold up two fingers if you need to go to the rest room” and one of her future Rotary members asked “how does that help?”

Then Dale Lambert officially welcomed us to REMC, gave away some buckets of door prizes such as mums, pens, flashlights, and tee shirts (one of which is modeled in the official photo by Jaci Betts). Dale thanked some of his 145 employees such as Revonda Hayes and Fred Cole for their help in putting the lunch together, and showed a short video about the arcing that happens when a substation switch opens improperly… or, “How NOT to Do It.” REMC was founded in 1938 (not far from its 60th anniversary), and is a utility owned by its 31,534 members in five counties (Randolph, Moore, Montgomery, Chatham and Davidson). Dale then adjourned us all to the rear loading dock of the REMC building, entered through their impressive warehouse , for a special demonstration.

We collected under the dock shelter and looked out at their storage yard, where Dale announced that some of their service men were going to exhibit a Pole Rescue, which they practice regularly even in the rain. (He noted that, for obvious reasons like power outages usually being caused by bad weather, service guys operate in the rain or snow more often than not.) The guys had erected a pole in the storage yard, to demonstrate what happens if a lineman gets into trouble, is knocked unconscious at the top of a pole, and needs to be rescued. Rodney Haithcock, Steve and Ed set up in trucks around the pole, and Danny Lee (a strapping young man with biceps that hint that he has seen the inside of a gym) was the pole climber whose task was to rescue “Mr. Cool,” a dummy in trouble up in the air. Dale said if anyone is in trouble their goal is to get him to the ground and have him receiving first aid within 5 minutes of the event.

When trouble happens, the first step is that the guys on the ground make a 911 call, and get their climbing gear out of the truck. Then they must put on their climbing spikes, get their lines hooked up, put on their (THICK!) rubber gloves, and climb the pole to the unconscious man. Then they hammer a big screwdriver into the pole and hook their belaying line around it for fall prevention. Then they hook to the victim and drop him quickly but safely to the ground. Then they climb down, take off their gear, check vital signs, and begin CPR.

Linemen have competitions to do all this, and their best time in competition is 2 minutes, 20 seconds. Today, given the rain and the fact that they actually wanted us to see what they were doing, Danny did it in a comparatively leisurely 3 minutes.

Dale called our attention to the other side of the yard where REMC emergency equipment was parked like their big mobile substation (it cost $900,000, and is the largest of two), and a new tank-tracked vehicle used to service off-road poles. Dale also showed a collection of items which they had found over the years which had been the cause (or the sobering melted result) of power outages. This led to a discussion of what squirrels do to transformers (they unintentionally bridge the spark gap and arrestor, which fries the squirrel and causes the fuses to blow). “Squirrels are a major problem for us,” said Dale.

(If that’s their worst problem, then I think the demonstration showed that they’ve got us very well covered!)

Friday, September 21, 2007

Your Scribe Mac Whatley is posting this from Lowell, Massachusetts, where he’s been at a Board of Trustees meeting for the American Textile History Museum. Covering for me while I’m away is Tar Wheel Editor Hall of Famer, Phil Shore:

A beautiful gray day in honor of which Joy Menius played a series of rain songs. Everett Thomas gave an invocation of thanks for where we live and the bounty of having meaningful work to do.

Rebecca Redding introduced our guests. Shawn Poe, guest of Jaci Betts, Elizabeth Hussey and Melba Reynolds, guests of John and Joy Menius, Roma Cheek, guest of George Bain, and Roy Kirkman, guest of Prithvi Hanspal. The lone Randolph Rotarian was Bob Shackelford. Welcome to you all!

Mini Singh introduced student guests from Asheboro High School. Greg Egerton is varsity soccer captain and a member of the Spanish Club. He plans to attend UNC-Chapel Hill or Furman to pursue a major in science with the intent of following a career in research or becoming a professor. Samantha Lovin is in the National Honor Society and participates in Mock Trial and Park Street Players. She plans to attend UNC-CH with the goal of becoming a lawyer.

Next week’s meeting will feature the Greensboro Symphony Music Director Dmitry Sitkovetsky. Russ Williams and John O.H. Toledano have provided this program. Please make plans to attend.

There will be a joint meeting with the Randolph Club on Wednesday, October 10. The speaker will be Senator Richard Burr—another fine program.

District Governor Dave McCoy will visit us on Friday, October 19. Be sure to wear your name tag, your Rotary pin, and give the Gov. a standing O when he is introduced.

The program today was introduced by Owen George. Tim Womick, well-known to the community on several scores, has worked closely with Owen in Trees Asheboro since they founded it. Tim described in excited style the depth of the work that Trees Asheboro has done. Simple acts that have changed living patterns for young people at the Boys and Girls Club in the East Side area.

 We learned that Tim is overseeing the rehabbing of an abandoned greenhouse. A new greenhouse is opening on the campus of South Asheboro Middle School. We also learned that Asheboro Pride is not simply an anti-litter campaign but also a tool for change in Asheboro. He offered a hundred bucks to anyone who could say when Arbor Day North Carolina was in 2008. He goes home with a hundred bucks. Third Friday in March is the perpetual date. Kemp Foster won one of Tim’s silver acorns by describing the plantings at railroad crossing in downtown Asheboro as one of the most beautiful jobs in the United States.

The Club very much enjoyed Tim’s presentation.

September 14, 2007

Joy was doing her best to coax rain from the skies today, playing convincing stuff like “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head,” and “Singing in the Rain.” But though it was grey above, the real rain didn’t fall until about 4PM on Friday. It was short, but sweet, and the first rain we’ve seen in more than a month. And the forecasts don’t promise much chance of more anytime soon. But maybe Joy and Ed did encourage the rain gods. It has happened before.

When I moved to Franklinville in 1978 and started talking with old-timers about life in the mill village, one of the stories everyone remembered was about the Reverend Joe Dan Hackney “Calling the Rain.” Joe Dan Hackney was an elderly and retired “foot-washing” Baptist preacher who lived south of Deep River in a white frame house with a two-story porch. Back then- I’m not sure when this was– perhaps that summer of 1933 which is what our TV weathermen are comparing our current drought to– but there hadn’t been rain in Franklinville in weeks and weeks. And it was not only drying up the gardens, like today; this was when they still used water wheels to generate power for the mills. So they needed rain to keep the jobs going, too.

They had a prayer meeting just to pray for rain, which they did, but that didn’t have any effect. Somehow the community turned to Joe Dan Hackney, who knew not just how to pray but how to “call the rain.” And one Saturday night he got out on his second story porch and blew a few big blasts on an old trumpet, which was the signal for everyone in town to beat on their dishpans and tubs and buckets and make a big racket. Which continued for a good few minutes. Then Joe Dan Hackney shot off several impressive blasts from his black powder rifle. Whereafter, nothing evident was seen to occur. Then Joe Dan Hackney up on his porch bellowed out a loud, yet prayerful appeal to the Almighty to “lift us out of this dry spell and into your favor.” Still nothing. People drifted away, grumbling. “Just wait on the Lord,” said Preacher Hackney. “There will be rain within a day.” The next morning there was not a cloud in the sky, but people saw Joe Dan Hackney walking to church with an umbrella on his arm. “Goin’ to need this in just a little bit,” he said. “You bring yours, too.” Huh! they said, and left their umbrellas at home. Of course, during the 11:00 service, the sky turned black and it began to thunder; soon there was a deluge…. and only Joe Dan Hackney was able to walk home dry.

Past President Ed Clayton, our own version of Joe Dan Hackney, was in the cockpit today, and opened with with a remembrance of Carole Gilliam and the victims of 9/11, which also had rain in there somewhere. He was determined to shake up things, and set us off to shake hands “with someone who don’t like.” [There was some hugging going to to get around that instruction, I saw]. Then Jaci Betts led the Four-Way Test, but Ed bade us “Say it Backwards.” Then Bob Morrison led us in the Pledge (thankfully, front-wards), and Everett Thomas invoked thanks with something about “earth and sea and sky” from the Book of Common Prayer.

Rebecca Redding welcomed guests Randy Batten (son of Bill), and a table-full from the Randolph Club: Tom Barton, Bob Wright, Archie Odell, Michael Trogdon, and Aaryn Slafky. Mini Singh introduced our first student guests of the new year, from AHS. Rebekah Siddiqui, daughter of Sid Siddiqui, has lived in Asheboro 6 years. She has 3 brothers and 3 sisters, is on the student council, volunteers a lot, and wants to attend UNC, Wake or Duke in premed. Adam Glass is the son of Pat and the late Tim Glass, and has one younger brother. He runs cross country, plays basketball, and plans to attend UNC and be a teacher.

Announcments: Next Saturday is the Rotary football game at WFU; $35 per ticket. Foster Hughes reminded us that the last chance Sunday in the Park is this weekend, when “West End Mambo” will play at 6:30. Past-Prez Ed announced that Community One Bank Prez. Mike Miller was absent because he had gone to South Bend, Indiana, to watch Michigan play Notre Dame. Says Ed, one must wonder about his judgment with numbers when Mike can’t find a better game than two team whose combined record is 0/4.

Proceeding with his Backwards to the Future theme, Ed declared himself to be anti-anti-litter; a fan, nay even an advocate of littering, and to drive the point home to the club and our speaker, he threw trash from the podium into the audience. Past President Mary Joan Pugh, close at hand to introduce our speaker, took a gavel to the ex-prexy’s head for that. She also asked the question, “Is Ed Clayton more litter-ate than a 5th Grader?” Maybe.

MJP finally got Bob Langston safely to the speaker’s podium. Bob, one of the Zoo’s Media and Marketing people, has been with us before, but this time is here as the 2007 Randolph County Big Sweep Coordinator. Bob has two degrees, from Chapel Hill in communications, and for safety, from UNC-W in Parks and Recreation. His topic and power point show was to remind us of the upcoming Big Sweep litter awareness and prevention action day which is set for Saturday September 29th.

This is the 20th anniversary Big Sweep, which began as the “Beach Sweep” to get plastic off the beaches before it could be eaten or otherwise harm sea turtles. In 1989 it expanded to all 100 counties, and in 2002, to all state watersheds.

Over the 20 years volunteers have gathered up 8 million pounds of garbage– that is 2,000 football fields covered with trash 10 feet high! Founders Andy Wood and Lundy Spence actually found a 16-pound Brazilian bowling ball on Wrightsville Beach that first year, but the prizes since then have been more like the tires and mattresses that Bob helped pull out of the Randleman drinking water reservoir. (No wonder they’re buying their water from Asheboro…)

The top ten things found by Big Sweep volunteers:

10: Appliances

9: Car parts

8: Old Tires

7: Used Disposable Diapers

6: Building Supplies

5: Cigarette wrappers and lighters

4: Plastic Grocery Bags

3: Food Packaging

2: Beverage Containers

And the #1 item found by Big Sweepers: Cigarette Butts!

Most of these items are NOT biodegradable, Ed Clayton. Monofilament fishing line (which is 100% recyclable) takes 600 years to degrade in the open environment. Plastic beverage bottles will take 450 years. Aluminum cans will take 80 to 200 years. Last year Randolph County had 815 Big Sweep Volunteers, who cleaned 19.25 miles of stream, and bagged 297 garbage bags with 9,605 pounds of litter.

If you want to volunteer Saturday 9-29, pick-up sites will be published in the paper, or to Adopt A Spot, call Bob at the Zoo. There will be two special events on 9-24-07; one at Balfour Elementary School at 1:15 PM; another meeting at Northgate Shopping Center at 4PM.  Also, MJP calls our attention to the “special waste day” at the County Landfill on Sept. 20th– they’ll accept pesticides, paint, batteries, white goods, and other hard-to-hide things.

In closing questions, Jim Culberson initiated a big discussion about “getting cupped,” an advertising scheme by a local pizza place which throws plastic cups full of coupons out in people’s yards. While Your Scribe can’t say this has been any problem in Franklinville (our litter runs more toward the odd dented Chevy bumper and decomposing upholstered sofa), it is evidently a sore point in on Dave’s Mountain, where Chief Jim is “really teed off.”

Oh, and we were blessed with precipitation before the end of the day, so based on results Past President Ed ranks up there with Joe Dan Hackney in his ability to Call The Rain.

Your Scribe will be in Boston next Friday, so The Mayor of Sunset Avenue will be noodling here. You are warned.

June 22, 2007

Asheboro Rotary Lite: No Music and Half the Members! I’m not sure where everyone was (the Summer Solstice was yesterday, so maybe they’re all at the Beach?) but the crowd was pretty thin at Asheboro Rotary today. I’m told by the Powers That Be that our average attendance lately has been 60% or less– which is not that great. Are you all making up at the Wednesday club?

At the Scribe Table, in lieu of music, the talk was about motion pictures. It started off as a critique of Foster Hughes’ selections at the Sunset Theater film series. Then Phil Shore began talking about What He Would Have Chosen (as Phil’s favorite is Bob Hope’s deathless classic Paleface, I for one am OK with Foster continuing to choose); and the conversation shifted to the American Film Institute’s “100 Best” list, just revised on CBS last Wednesday on its 10th anniversary. Citizen Kane is still #1, and Paleface is nowhere to be found. But there are some significant changes, particularly in the rankings. To Kill A Mockingbird moved up; Gone With the Wind moved down; and newcomers like Lord of the Rings found a spot. To see the new list, and compare it to the old one, check out http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/movies.aspx or to compare the old list and the new list, see the Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years…_100_Movies_%2810th_Anniversary_Edition%29 .

After Prithi’s gong started the meeting, Owen George led the 4WT, Prithi the Pledge, and Phil Shore chanted the Prayer (Cantor Shore? Who knew? Oi!) . It’s almost the end of the year, so we’re breaking in some new help at the back table. Neal Griffin and Rebecca Redding were keeping track of people, and a wounded Talmadge Baker was minding the money. Rebecca introduced the visitors: Rachel Hayes, guest of Elizabeth Cox; Robin Breedlove, publisher of Liberty’s News, with Owen; and from the Randolph Club, Archie Odell and Susan Milner.

Next Week is Prithi’s Last Responsibility (Past-Presidents everywhere know your relief, Dr. Hanspal!), and we’ll swear in some new officers. On June 28th there will be a Family of Rotary Picnic at Guilford College, after which they’ll enjoy an Eastern Music Festival concert. Details are found on the district website.

Vegetarian Times: Water is the most valuable resource on earth, and much more water is required to bring animals to market than agriculture. One pound of wheat requires 60 pounds of water, while 1 pound of meat requires 5-6,000 pounds of water. Run-off waste from feed lots is a primary source of water pollution; and one large chicken processing plant uses as much water per day as the entire City of Asheboro.

Owen George, the chairman of the Environment Committee, actually brought us two programs today.

First he introduced Lily Kuo, our Ambassadorial Scholar leaving for Taiwan next Thursday. Lily was the beneficiary of the $26,000 scholarship donated to District 7690 by District 3460 after Owen’s Group Study Exchange trip last year. Lily is part of a Chinese-American family but she is the only member of her family who was actually born in the USA. Her two brothers and parents run a furniture manufacturing business, and she just graduated from UNC-CH; she wanted a scholarship to study English Romantic Poets in the Lake District, but now is glad that fate directed her into this trip to her ancestral homeland. She’ll reside in Taichung for a year and attend Tung Hai University, the best in the region. Lily spoke about the difficulty of saying goodbye and the uncertainty of the future (something Your Scribe certainly has done a lot of thinking about this week since putting Roman on the plane for Russia), and we’ll look forward to keeping up with her on her Blog.

Owen then introduced Kim Markham, Owner of Asheboro Recycling Center, and the man responsible for the City of Asheboro’s new curbside recycling program.

After 14 years with Energizer, Kim purchased Asheboro Recycling in 2002 from Tim Schwarz, and since then has expanded the business considerably.  In 2002 he recycled 1.2 million pounds of metal, worth about $650,000 in sales, and employed 3 people.  In 2006 he recycled 7.1 million pounds of metal, cardboard and plastic, had sales of $3.4 million, and employed 20 people.   That included 1.6 million pounds of cardboard, the equivalent of 13, 812 trees; and 411,000 pounds of aluminum , representing 13 million beverage cans (Mike Miller said he was certain, knowing Asheboro so well, that they were ALL soda cans.  For sure.)

Kim aims to have Asheboro’s curbside recycling program going by September 1st.  To handle the volume of material, he has built a new 33,000 square foot facility in south Asheboro,  which is a type of “MuRF”- a Materials Recovery Facility.  Asheboro residents will be required to separate trash from the recycling, so this will be different from the High Point program which several years ago started with a “Dirty MuRF”- a facility where workers had to sort the recyclables from the garbage.  Kim designed the facility and purchased used equipment based on the City’s 2005 garbage collection statistics.  He estimates that he’ll recycle 8% of that 2005 total- if it gets up to 20%, he’ll need more equipment.

The city will provide households and businesses with a new 90 gallon recycling container, and one of the two pick up days each week will become Recycling Pick-Up Day.  As part of the regular garbage program city workers will bring the material to the “Clean MuRF” and Kim’s workers will sort through the single stream of commingled material- paper, plastic, glass, wood, fiber, whatever- separating and classifying it.  Kim expects to add 10-12 part-time employees to do this work.

Kim estimates that newspaper will be 60% of the material recovered at first.  He will continue to buy aluminum cans (but he’ll happily pull them out of the recycle bins) since 1-12 ounce can is worth 1.5 cents in scrap value.  32 make a pound, so he pays 52 cents per pound for aluminum cans.  Plastic bottles are harder- he’ll take plastic containers where the mouth is smaller than the body- butter tubs and tupperware are unwanted guests which can contaminate the higher grade plastic (Kim and Mary Joan Pugh exchanged knowing shakes of the head over the HDP vs. LDPE plastic controversy– it was over the heads of the rest of us!)  He also doesn’t want antifreeze jugs or paint cans- take the to GARCO!  He doesn’t want plastic grocery bags, but he won’t trash them.  They’re hard to recycle, and it takes a bunch to make one bale (Your Scribe has a least a bale stuff in a cabinet- as far as I can tell, no grocery store or Walmart accepts them back any more.  They are an environmental nightmare:  they don’t even ask ‘paper or plastic?’ anymore, but we need to demand paper bags!)  TV, computer and electronic equipment he accepts at ARC now, but he’ll be creating a separate corporation for that soon.  He charges $6-7 to recycle a TV or VDT; CPUs he takes for free, given the gold, silver and copper in the circuit boards.

July 19th is the Grand Opening of the new ARC MuRF.  Visitors are welcome all day (AVS will be catering hot dogs for lunch, and Snider Farms will be catering dinner).  The Chamber of Commerce will host a Business After Hours there in the evening, which will kick off the Chamber’s 2007-8 membership campaign.  Everyone is invited to attend and tour the new facility.