Rotary Meeting of May 2, 2013 "Double Double, Fries, and make it a diet coke I am trying to lose some weight", by Jack Weber, Cub Reporter

Well, you have learned that whenever Gary can’t do the bulletin he asks me to fill in for him. The signal is: I grab his seat since is truly the best seat in the house.  Excellent views and a fast escape. But, alas, two people were standing behind Gary’s chair and the one next to it. It was not Floyd. Turned out they were from the ES Planning Commission. Then I looked around and the room was jam packed. Dean’s recruiting for new members has gotten out of hand. Need to speak with him about slowing down a bit on the recruiting. Then, bing, the light turned on: In N Out was scheduled to do a presentation of their plan to come to El Segundo. So, I started looking for a different seat. The only open one was next to our Supreme Commander. Any port in a storm, I suppose. If we get any larger, we will be bigger than the Manhattan Beach Rotary.

Our Supreme Commander called the meeting to order and we recited the pledge of allegiance. There were enough people in the small room saying the pledge of allegiance that the very level of the volume was enough to make patriotism tingle your spine.

Jim McLees was the Joke Master. However, he froze (due to the size of the crowd) and said the one he had was… never mind… too risqué. First time that ever happened.

Birthday cards. Melissa had a couple to give out but the one that caused the most laughter was Robin’s. Not so much the card, but Robin is farsighted or so we learned. She forgot her glasses and had to have the card held at least 5 feet away to read it…. Give her credit – she read it.

Food. Joe and the Hacienda treat us really well. Good luncheons, desserts, lots of food. Usually a bit left over. Not so today – gone, all of it; nothing left. Platter licked clean.

Jack (me) spoke about the progress of the Community Wellness Day. Short version: we are where we should be on the project plan. I will bring sign-up sheets for EVERYONE to volunteer for some activity. By the way (this is the truth) – some of the Lakers’ Girls will be there. They requested a reserved parking space (o.k. that can be handled); they requested plenty of water (o.k. that can be handled, too); and they requested an escort to show them around and be with them (that goes to the highest bidder so that we will show a large profit).

Joe Harding levied NO fines. I guess we have learned how to behave ourselves (except for Sheila – she still leaves her cellphone on and has not put an advertisement in the Herald – both hot points for Joe).

Our guests were representatives from In N Out Burgers and Decron Properties (In N Out being the proposed tenant and Decron being the owner of the shopping plaza at the northeasterly corner of the intersection of Mariposa and Sepulveda). In N Out wants to build a restaurant in the area where the current business is Sizzler Steak House. David Nagle ,President and CEO of Decron, delivered the main part of the presentation.

The proposal is to demolish Sizzler’s building, reconfigure parking, build the new building for In N Out, provide a stack lane for the drive thru portion of the restaurant  which provides for more stack spaces than most drive thru facilities (21 was the number used at the presentation), build an outdoor patio for those customers who are not drive through customers and build a food court patio for those customers of the food establishments on the northerly side of the shopping center.

They will make better use of the underground parking facility of 62 parking spaces which is largely ignored by current patrons of the shopping plaza.  Oddly many of us who live in El Segundo (and have for many years) and use the shopping plaza were never aware of the underground parking. I was one of them and on Friday I took a drive over there to do some “field observations”. They were right – the parking facility was in fact there and in fact had 2 cars in it leaving 60 spaces empty.

The presentation gave us many more details. Suffice it to say, the amount of work needed to get an approval is huge.

After a question and answer session, Tom thanked the Decron – In N Out team and wished them luck with their undertaking.

Now, there usually not much exciting about our weekly raffle –some wine, some cheese an occasional pineapple (Gary Wilson loves pineapple, if he loses it in the raffle, he will buy it from the winner for a premium). The Supreme Commander and the Treasurer, however, found a way of greatly boosting the amount of money the raffle brings it: The In N Out gift certificates were put in the raffle and they raised the net higher than it has ever been in our history. We ought to have them come every week!!!!

Tom gonged the end of the meeting; we all loudly said “yes sir”. The puzzled looks on our guests’ faces told the tale: what a bunch of interesting people there are in the El Segundo Rotary!!