Roseland Rotary Meeting May 22, 2014
Roseland Rotary Meeting May 22, 2014
What a nice day for a Rotary lunch meeting at the Waterford in Roseland. Yes everyone was in a good mood and it was a lively meeting despite being low on numbers. For the members that did not attend, you missed a good one. Our speaker was the Sheriff of St. Joseph County. Makes you wonder why some members missed the meeting, hum.
Did you know Frank Toepp had a Hot Date? You will need to ask Frank about this.
President Bob Sones called the meeting to order at 12:15, Cliff Witkowski gave the prayer and Song Master Bob Eberhart led us in both verses of the Rotary song. Now we were not too bad on verse one but on verse two I heard a lot of humming and I heard it over my humming. I know we can do better, guess a lot of members forgot their glasses.
Special note, Saturday May 31, 2014 at the Studebaker Museum is the Celebration of the Century. This is celebrating 100 years of South Bend Rotary. Information can be found on the calendar.
Cliff Witkowski again thanked everyone for their support and work during the Food Drive. It was noted that for every dollar given the Food Bank can purchase roughly 30 pounds of food. With part of the money we raised at our Annual Auction we were able to give $4,800 to the Food Bank. My math is not good but doesn’t that come out to about 144,000 pound of food. Is Roseland Rotary good or what?
Al Veldman is back from a 10 day trip to Europe where he discovered that it’s alright for the cleaning people to clean the restrooms while you are using it. What Al got excited about is that the cleaning people were female. Al thinks it should catch on here in the US. Al discussed his award and how he did not deserve it. We think Al might be wrong about this as I don’t know of anyone more deserving. Al’s family had so many tables for the awards that they are thinking of naming the event the Veldman’s Award Banquet. Veldman’s were coming in from all over the place and still Al could not figure it out. Can you say, “a little slow on the up-take”. Well you must take into account that Al was born in 1930. Seriously, congratulations to Al, and Al you do deserve it.
Joe Maloney announced that this year’s President Bash will be held Thursday June 26th here in South Bend at the famous Mahoney House. A signup sheet was passed around and will be passed around again at other meetings. If you cannot make a meeting please call Joe and let him know you will be attending. Note, there will be no regular meeting on that date. Please make plans to be there. This is a great time for all our members to attend.
You could sure tell Dave Keck and Al Veldman missed each other when Al was away. The two bickered all though the Happy Dollar collections. Frank Toepp gave a dollar for Al and of course Al wanted it and Dave wouldn’t give it to him. Bob Eberhart was happy to see Ben two weeks in row. Joe Maloney paid a Happy Dollar because he got stopped for speeding on his way home after this week’s Board meeting and he only got a warning. The sheriff did not look to pleased that he only got a warning.
Dave Keck introduced our speaker Sheriff Mike Grzegorek and his guest Tim Decker 
retired South Bend Police Department and now working with the Sheriff’s Department. Our Sheriff’s Department not only patrols the entire county but they are also responsible for the jail, serving warrants, sex offenders, court house and other jobs to many to mention. The Sheriff’s Department has over 350 employees and 116 police officers. In 2007 the number of officers was 132 however do to budget cuts in 2010 that number was reduced to 114.
Last year there were 10,071 bookings, 8,670 warrants served, 3,095 arrests and 2,700 cases investigated.
Once someone is put in the county jail their medical is the responsibility of the Sheriff’s Department. In 2013 that accounted for $1,800,000 in medical costs.
This was a very informative meeting with many great questions for the Sheriff from our members. If you missed it you missed a good one.
There were 15 members, one speaker and one guest present for the Luncheon.
I heard much shouting and cheering so I assume Dave Keck won the drawing.
Next week’s speaker should be Jim Bolinger from Flags International.
Good weather, good food, great people, good causes, so why not come to next week’s meeting?
Have a Great Week everyone.