5/19/21
In attendance: McNall, Kopras, Pakkala, Johnson, Yauchler, Zalucha, Dillis, Steinhauer, Christiansen, Burns, Burns, Christian, Wallitsch, Helwig
Guests Rick Harnish, William Porter
Frolic Info: Steve Helwig updated us on the Frolic. We will share the Hamburger Stand with other groups. The goal is to have 50% Rotarians at every shift. The rest of each shift will be filled in by Interact and others. The schedule is being prepared and will come out soon. We will set up Wednesday evening and run Thursday to Sunday. We’ll go until we run out of food on Sunday. There was a short discussion about cutting out drinking alcohol in the stand.
Speaker:Rick Harnish, Executive Director High Speed Rail Alliance 2001 – Present Rick Harnish co-founded the High Speed Rail Alliance in 1993 with a passion for revitalizing the region he grew up in, lives in, and loves.
Rick posed the question: What will it take to make high speed rail happen?
Imagination. Dedication. Patience.
The alliance is a growing community working to bring the game-changing power of fast, frequent and affordable trains to North America. He said that high-speed trains, integrated with expanding transit networks, will revitalize cities, towns and regions by making visits to family, friends and business partners easier, more productive and more affordable…And they will dramatically reduce carbon emissions in the process.
Building new high-speed trunk lines will take time. States need to commit to planning and financing them right now. We urgently need to improve our existing trains to make them fast, frequent and affordable. So, they take a multi-track approach, supporting regional and national plans that integrate both immediate improvements to the existing networks and the construction of transformative high-speed lines. These ideas include removing crossings and adding a second set of rails for high speed
