City Commission - Regular Meeting

The following program was produced by CTV Community Television.

For more than 20 years, CTV has captured the moments that matter in our community. From our studios in St. Clair, you're watching Focus with Paul Dingaman.

As we're in the last week of May, we welcome you along to the next edition of the Focus Program. We've got two very interesting guests. We want to welcome Amy Smith from St. Clair Rotary Club and Michael Walls from LaFontaine Buick Chevy Buick GMC. I'll get it in three or four years. Always good to see you, Paul. We got you guys here because it's Memorial Day weekend. It's the beginning of summer. There's lots of things happening, but St. Clair Rotary, which is busy just like he is, 12 months a year, has got some new flags.

We are really kicking off our U.S. Flags program. So, you know, with the anniversary or the country's birthday, 250 years, we really want to put a plug in and encourage our residents to purchase a flag and a flagpole from the Rotary.

Okay. St. Clair Rotary has had the flag program for numbers of years. It goes back to Mr. Hanrahan, Doc Hanrahan, and Fred Moore got involved in it 20 years ago, probably.

Yeah, it's been around a long time.

And it's still strong. It's still a good program. Yes, it is. So citizens of what area can buy flags from the Rotary?

Within St. Clair and St. Clair Township, East China, in that area. Okay. Yeah.

And how do they get a, there's a QR code we're going to put up on the air, but there's a flyer like this that's available, St. Clair City Hall, and is there other places that they can get information on a flag?

Our Rotary members are going to do a promotional sweep. They're going to kind of start peppering homes around the community from Range Road south down to, I think they said East China, the hospital down in that area, and hit homes and kind of put them out.

These are little door knockers that people put on. There's a hole there that they can put right on the door. Yeah.

So making people aware of it and then hit the QR code. It'll take you right to where you can order the, if you don't already have a pole, you know, the sleeve for the pole and then the flag that goes with it.

The gentleman next to you, Mr. Walls, is responsible for a couple of buildings in the community.

Yes.

One on King Road, one on Kearney Drive. Talk to me about what happened here with Mr. Walls.

Well, one of our Rotarians went in and met with Mike and LaFontaine agreed to put up 13 flags in front of the Ford dealership. And then they're going to put up another nine at the Chevy dealership.

Okay, and then let me see the other picture there too. That is the north, looking north at the Chevy store. And then the Ford store, let's see that again. It's just spectacular.

When you drive through it, it really looks phenomenal. It does. Yes.

Michael, tell me about LaFontaine. Well, we're just happy to support a local organization like the St. Clair Rotary. And, you know, just as a representation of community pride and patriotism. And there's nothing but a better time than Memorial Day weekend here to represent our military and those who have served our country for us. And, you know, it just, I think, you know, the American flag, it just, I think it stands for, you know, unity and sacrifice and, you know, just everything that our community is based on, service. Service, yeah. Yeah. So we're happy to be part of the program.

You've got quite a lineup of automobiles in the area. How is business? It goes up, it goes down, I know, like lots of things.

Well, we're past our winter months where no one wants to be out in the winter on a truck around in the dealership lot, but we're happy that the warmer weather is on its way, or it's here, let's call it. It's a fun time for us. Summertime, spring, summer, and fall is a really good time for us. We enjoy it. We can be outside. Our team's outside. Our flags look great. The green lawn looks great, other than all the piles of snow.

And I think people are surprised. I've asked you this question before. How many employees you guys have in those two stores in the area? You really employ a lot of people.

We do. Between the two locations, we're probably about 165 employees.

Wow.

The Chevrolet store is approximately 115, and then the Ford location is around 65.

That's important to the community. Just like Rotary's important to the community. And Rotary's been around over a hundred years.

Over a hundred years, yeah.

And the famous story, they originally built the St. Clair Inn as a project, a community project.

And didn't they help with the hospital way back when?

The hospital and the pool, the legacy baseball park. Are you looking for members?

We are always looking for members. Anybody who is interested in learning about Rotary, we would love to have you join us. We meet at noon on every Monday at the Voyager.

Okay.

Or you can, by any means, you can reach out to any of the members that are on the Rotary website.

StClairRotary.org.

And so all of us are listed. And by all means, if you know anybody, reach out to them, ask them about Rotary. We're getting ready to kick off our Turtle Race ticket sales. You know, that's coming up. A couple weeks ago, we were cleaning up the wildlife landing down in the Rotary Park. Behind Ted's. Behind Ted's, yeah. We were down there cleaning that up. So, yeah, we've been busy. Good.

Anything, any specials this week on cars?

Every week, right?

There's no better time to buy a car than this week. No. There's a lot of great programs going on, whether you're leasing or buying. There's some really low interest rates. There's 2.9 of a 72 months for Silverado. So there's a lot of really good financing rates right now.

Right. Did we miss anything?

Just get out.

We didn't mention the prices. The new flag in a pole is $80, which is not bad. And that comes and they install it.

And actually, a Rotarian will come and actually install it. You can pick out where you would like it put, and they will come and put it in your yard for you and put it all together.

And you get Facebook entries every once in a while about how raggedy the flags are here or there or the other way. You can get a replacement flag for $50. Correct. The pole only, if your pole gets broke, $50. And the sleeve, oh, the sleeve's the thing in the ground. Correct. Okay. So the prices are reasonable. They're for... Like you would be at retail stores.

I got mine last year for Father's Day. Bought it for my husband, and it still looks great. Good. Yeah, so they last a long time. Amy, thanks. Always a pleasure. Well, thank you, Paul.

Appreciate it. Good seeing you. Good seeing you. Back with Georgia Phelan, the famous Georgia Phelan, in just a second.