Today we were joined by the honorable Chief Judge Robbin Stuckert of the 23rd Circuit Court. She discussed the many roles she fills and the progress that has been made over the last year in the areas of bail reform, pretrial services, mental health court, the IL Judicial College, and the Sober Living House. Her main focus over the last few years has been in the area of pretrial services, where the team uses a risk assessment process to drive the setting of bail amounts and release procedures to limit the amount of time spent in jail by people accused of crimes if they are likely to reappear in court as directed. The IL Judicial College is being created in an attempt to further the education of clerks, guardian ad litems, and others involved in the legal process who currently have no or very limited continuing education requirements. Lastly, we were updated on the Sober Living House that currently is home to 7 individuals. No complaints have been received but they are struggling to find employment for the individuals going through the program and they hope to change that.

 

Rose Tremly from the Sycamore Chamber of Commerce joined us today to discuss some of the happenings at the Chamber this year. She was very proud to share that member retention for the Chamber is well above the national average at almost 85-90% and has been holding above 500 members for many years. She discussed the passion that she and her fellow staff have for the local community and the opportunities they've had to share that passion through the many events they host each year. She shared two particularly emotional stories reflecting on close connections that exist in Sycamore that makes it the community she feels honored to represent. 

 

The Sycamore Rotary Club took a few minutes on Wednesday to honor the many veterans from our club that have served in one of the armed services at some point in their lives. As Veteran's Day falls between two club meetings, President Ray Dembinski wanted to ensure that these members and their acts of service and sacrifices were acknowledged before the group. Our thanks go out to all in our club, community, and country who have served to protect the great freedoms that we enjoy. 

 

Approximately 50 members from the Sycamore Rotary Club and their families were on site at the Suter Company's facility on Bethany Rd today to help pack food for the Feed My Starving Children Mobile Pack Event hosted by Make a Difference DeKalb County. In addition to the members on site for the two hour event which helped to pack enough food to feed over 250 kids for the next year, several members have been assisting throughout the entire 5 day event that hopes to see almost 1.4 million meals packed for starving children around the world.