CIGAR BOX BULLETIN

Volume No. 52, No. 10         July 7, 2004

President BOB CHURCH rang the bell to open the meeting. JOE ROBINSON preceded the pledge with a reading of  “I Am the Flag of the United States of America.” Our song leader CHUCK STANDARD reminded us that we should place our right hand over our heart when we sing our National Anthem. We concluded our trilogy of songs with It’s a Grand Old Flag and America the Beautiful. JIM SANTORA was at the ivories. BOB CHURCH regretted to announce a $2 day. We will have a memorial for John C. Murphy next week. BILL DYNAN, our Recording Secretary, summarized last week’s events and gave us some “Only in America” anomalies. He also noted that the Mets swept the Yankees this past weekend. PETER SCHIEFERDECKER, our Acting Corr. Secretary, lamented the passing of the typewriter as he read a lone autumnal postcard from Maine. He then told a story about how one man with twelve women on an island lost his only day off.Treasurer HERB EGLI got our approval for the budget and then reported that after two months into our new fiscal year we were $300 short of cash. This shortfall is partially due to our weekly cash collections being less than attendance would indicate (fess up or pay up).

ANNOUNCEMENTS: BOB BUTTON requested our attendance at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park at 7:30 on July 14 when his band will present danceable music with understandable lyrics. He also thanked NORM COLLINS for his recent assistance. CARL VAN AIKEN of the Investment Club announced two forthcoming presentations. On July 14, UBS will present “Investor Insights: The Impact of Rising Interest Rates.” And on July 21, Fidelity Investments will present a market outlook based on the latest statistics. GRAHAM WHITEHEAD reported that we have six boats for next Monday’s raft-up.

RETURNEES: RON KLINGNER from Washington DC and CARL VAN AIKEN from Hungary, Croatia,Serbia, Bulgaria and Rumania.

COMMITTEE REPORTS: Visiting: CHUCK STANDARD said that DOM DIMAIO returned home from recent lung surgery. He expects to be back after six weeks and requests no visitors at this time. PETE JACKSON, GENE GORMLEY, JOR KOLOK and KARL DAVIES are all recuperating. Program: SAM MARASSO announced that next week, JOHN CARON would introduce FAY VINCENT, the former Baseball Commissioner, whose topic will be “Baseball Reminiscences.” These will include interviews with Hall of Famers and an oral history of former baseball greats. The Program Committee will meet next week. Special Events: TOM HEALY emphasized that the bus for this Sunday’s trip to Tanglewood will depart from the OG Civic Center at 8:45. A new policy for future trips will be to distribute tickets as the money is received. Please make your menu selections now for the Goodspeed Opera House trip on August 26. Membership: DOUG TAYLOR gave the attendance as 173 members, 7 candidates and one guest. The candidates are RICH COHN, PAUL DISARIO, BOB WARD, LEE DAVENPORT, LARRY REBAK, PAUL LEVINE and ERF PORTER. RAY JUSTUS is MIKE BALINT’S guest. Happy Birthday to JOHN CARON 80, JOE MALARA 84, CARL STONE 80, GEORGE EVANS 74, BOB HORTON 86, WAYNE WRIGHT 71 and LINN GRIM 76. Volunteers: HARRY TWITCHELL noted that we had 694 outside hours by 75 men and 94 RMA hours by 29 men.

PLAYTIME: Bridge: LORING WEBBER reported that the top three scores among 8 players were AL HARTIG at 2670, JOHN HOFFMAN at 1510, and HUGO GRUENDEL at 990. Golf: Closest to the pin: #7 – ROS CURTIS,  #15 – ROGER PIERCE and longest drive #17 – RICH BARTHOLOMEW. The low gross scores were: REID MCINTRYE 86, LEON FREEMAN 88 and JIM MACKAY 91.

TODAY’S PROGRAM: JOE ROBINSON introduced CHARLES FIRLOTTE, President and CEO of Aquarion Water Co. His subject was to be “Musings on Corporate and Community Responsibility” but a hardware problem deferred that presentation to another day. CHUCK started with some basic facts about water.Although 80% of the earth’s surface is covered by water, only 1% of that water is drinkable. Our average per capita consumption is 50 gallons a day. If we were to take shower in Evian it would cost $400, but our cost is only 5 cents. Aquarion is a result of the acquisition of the former Connecticut-American Water Company by Kelda Group plc of Bradford, England. During the Q&A session we learned that the company has about 80 acres of surplus land off Lake Avenue that they are trying to sell to the Town with the help of First Selectman Lash and Senator Nickerson. Since acquiring the Greenwich system the company has been spending at least $2 million a year to upgrade underground piping and valves. All the reservoirs in Greenwich are needed to serve Greenwich’s needs. In fact, Greenwich has been using some of the surplus capacity of Bridgeport. Our water quality exceeds all Federal and state standards. To reduce the Chlorine taste in water, cool the water in the refrigerator with a little lemon.

RICH BARTHOLOMEW, Editor

SPECIAL EVENTS
Open to all members, their ladies, candidates and guests. Note: Wait-List checks not cashed until accepted for the trip.

Sun, July 11,  Tanglewood - bus from OG Civic Center 8:45 AM – 1 opening
Thurs, Aug. 26, Goodspeed Opera - bus from St. C. 9:30 AM (8 on wait list)
Thurs, Sept. 9,  Foxwood Casino - bus from St.C. 8:30 AM – 7 openings at $22 pp
Sat  Oct. 2,    West Point Football Game and Officer Club Dinner - (14 on wait list)

NEXT WEEK

Fay Vincent, former Baseball Commissioner, will speak on “Baseball Reminiscences.”