Welcome Chief Doug Lee
We welcomed visiting El Dorado Hills Rotarians, Phyllis Baughman (again) and Carl Daniel, who are new members jumping in with both feet and visiting every Club in the District! Ken Campbell was outed and had to admit to his birthday having been found out through Facebook. The winner of the raffle generated loud boos as it was our esteemed Finemaster, Dave Bonillo, but he couldn't produce the winning Ace.
President Dan asked that those giving Happy Bucks include a remembrance of our dear Harvey who passed away last week. Some of those remembrances included:
- Receiving his hugs, several mentioned his insistence on wearing the Rotary pin which has resulted in many wearing their pins much more often, it was agreed.
- "I didn't get to know him very long, but long enough for him to get me into a Cancer Survivor group--- and I have never had Cancer !!". Pres
- Pres. Elect Caron noted that her daughter and Harvey shared a birthday.
- It was agreed that Harvey was a driver of this Club and one that always strived to make it better. That was later amended to, "he drove us, but we liked it."
- Mary Ann recounted how Harvey would take her many times to the Kaiser Opthalmologist in Roseville, until she found out that Kaiser had that service in Lincoln. He said he would do anything for her.
To view Harvey's Obituary and to sign the online condolence book click on:
Harvey's Celebration of Life will be on Saturday, June 16th at 2PM at the Lincoln Hills Community Church on Joiner followed by a time to toast him at their home, 1190 Tarapin Lane, Lincoln from 5PM.
Wild Bill noted how much he appreciated attending ALL 7 of the Bikes for Books awards at our Elementary schools in the past 10 days. It's rewarding to see the kids so excited. Click here for more pictures.
Many praised the fantastic Luau evening held at Dan and Sharon's beautiful home. Thank you to the Johnson's !! Click here for pictures.
Bryan Ludwig's turn to give his 3 minute speech on his life began with, "I was born, I grew up, and here I am!". He filled in a lot of the gaps in a very amusing manner and gave us a good insight into his life prior to Rotary.
Our speaker was our Police Chief, Doug Lee who has been in office for 18 months.
He started off by saying how very welcoming the Community has been and how much he enjoys his job here in Lincoln. He is happy to have a low crime rate, great staff to work with and great folks.
He told us of the Pink Badge Program that is designed to raise funds for combating cancer. Lincoln Rotary has donated $300 toward the $800 cost and they hope to raise $6,000 from selling the patches. Most likely ACS will receive the donation which made Caron Russell smile. He has also signed up his Team Lincoln to participate in the Pull for the Cure, which involves pulling a fire engine. The team will be both police and fire.
Lincoln Police Department update:
- They have 3 vacancies they are trying hard to fill. It is very difficult to recruit new officers for a variety of reasons. Many candidates don't make the grade and there is a lot of competition in surrounding areas for candidates. Hoping to fill soon. He was asked, even if filled, are we still short on staff, and the answer is YES. We have about .5 officers per thousand residents and the state average is 1.5 officers per resident. Sales tax dollars are insufficient to provide enough police officers and firemen, so shop in Lincoln!!
- Lincoln continues to be a safe place to live.
- One of Doug's objectives was to be open and transparent and use Social Media to inform and connect with residents. It came back to bite him a bit as he was posting all arrests with photos and people thought we were suddenly in a crime wave-- though it was not an increase, just a lot more visibility. He has stopped posting every arrest now.
- There have been 2 homicides which is unusual but neither was committed by a stranger, there was history between the two, one domestic abuse and one drug related.
- One of the biggest issues is that our residents tend to leave valuables in cars and even leave them unlocked. This is inviting theft. Take valuables out of parked cars and always lock them, this will prevent a large amount of the thefts. Lincoln Hills is extremely safe, most occurrences are scams and leaving things in cars.
- The Social Host Ordinance was passed and provides the Police with the ability to charge adults in whose homes alcohol or drugs are being used by minors with a fine of $1,000. This is a valuable deterrent.
The Chief did a fine job of answering all questions and we are fortunate to have a police chief who is as involved in the Community and clearly cares about it.