CLUB NEWS
"Welcome to Smoky Hill Rotary Club ...
the best place to be at noon on Monday!
Smoky Hill Rotary Club … serving the City of Aurora and the World!"
2018-19 President & PDG Talee Crowe
SMOKY HILL ROTARY'S
9th ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT … Friday, August 2nd! The bookkeeper PP Mark Johnson reports there is $12,100 in the bank and with two checks in hand a total of $14,160 has been collected representing about 64 golfers. This puts us on PAR with last year but there is usually a flurry of activity in June and early July so it is time to kick it in high gear to get those sponsorships and golfers TEED up! Golf Committee Chair PP Gary Frisch noted we have about 8 weeks to go! The next golf committee meeting is this week, Tuesday, June 11th beginning at 5:30PM at the bookkeeper's home.
PAUL HARRIS FELLOWS …
According to Foundation Chair PP Lloyd Gottman, the Rotary Foundation is one of the premier foundations in the country and every dollar donated to the Foundation comes back to .png)
benefit Rotary projects! Lloyd presented Pat Pogue with a pin in recognition for achieving the Paul Harris Fellow plus 3 (PHF+3) level of giving to the Foundation. PHF+3 means Pat has donated $4,000 to the Foundation! Congratulations and thanks to Pat!
SMOKY HILL ROTARVARIETY OF NEWS …
President Talee Crowe gave Pauline Ayers-Menk a hearty thank you for consistently performing secretarial duties each week!
The club's annual Installation Dinner will be held on Saturday, June 22nd at Heritage Club Eagle Bend! Please RSVP to the Evite you should have received from Club Service Chair PP Terry Remigio! Please Note: No lunch meeting on Monday, June 24th following the Installation Dinner and no lunch meeting on Monday, July 1st. The Joint Board Meeting and DINNER(!) is scheduled for Thursday, June 27 at Talee's home at which time PE Hugh Radke will present the 2019-20 budget.
The Rotary Club of Aurora Gateway is conducting its 3rd annual TopGolf Charity Tournament on Thursday, July 11 from noon to 5pm. TopGolf is located at 10601 E. Easter Avenue in Centennial 80112. If you are interested in participating in the tournament you can talk with Talee or go to their website.
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As soon as PP Clay Fell's salmon salad was served, Clay flipped his chair around so he couldn't see or reach the salad. The abrupt way Clay turned his back on that poor salad must have put her into a state of shock! You could see some of the lettuce begin wilting! Clay was either 1) so interested in the presentation by Sheriff Brown he couldn't be bothered by food, or 2) he just read about 6 foods to never eat on your diet: salmon, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, dried cranberries, feta cheese and salad dressing, or 3) he was so bored by the conversation at his table he had to turn his back on everyone! We may never know why he shunned that lonely salad but who really cares … if you sit with the "Rotator", chances are you might get the opportunity to snatch a few extra bites of food off his plate too!
THIS WEEK'S THOUGHT … "Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the suffering and tolerant with the weak and wrong. Sometime in you life you will have been all of these.”
We were fortunate to have Sheriff Tyler Brown, Undersheriff Mark Nicastle and our good friend and former Smoky Hill Rotarian Bob Stef from the Arapahoe County's Sheriffs' (ACS) office with us this week. Bob happily drew the lotto tickets for us and the Sheriff spoke primarily on the Urgent Public Safety Needs of Arapahoe County. The Sheriff has been in law enforcement since 2007 and was elected to office in January 2019. The ACS office earned the triple crown award from the National Sheriff's Association for achieving simultaneous accreditation from three law enforcement commissions. It is an extraordinary feat with only 100 sheriffs' offices receiving the award since it was established in 1993.
Sheriff Brown has made several changes to the office of 745 employees including creating the Undersheriff position (hiring Mark Nicastle), creating a 2nd captain's position for the patrol division, hiring Bob Stef and creating a new public information officer's position. Two weeks ago the office finalized a contract for providing police service to the City of Centennial which can run out for 10 years. It is very expensive to train and equip patrol officers ($6,000 training academy, $5,000 equipment and $5,200 for a radio).
The Arapahoe County Justice Center provides a jail for all the the county's 13 cities and towns. It provides criminal courts for all of the residents in the county. The jail was built in 1986 to house 386 inmates but now houses over 1,200 inmates! The county's jail booking and release center was designed for 29 inmates but routinely holds as many as 80! They have 450 inmates experiencing mental health issues but only have 20 cells to address severe mental health and medical issues. The existing facilities do not have any space to add more cells.
The lack of adequate facilities creates a public safety issue. Inmate assaults on deputies have increased from 11 in 2016 to 24 in 2018 (highest ever recorded) and it is expected to be over 30 for 2019. 20% of the county's budget has been spent on maintaining the aging facilities over the last decade.
The solution to the problem is keeping people out of jail who don't need to be there, engaging all inmates in services that will help them lead productive lives and creating safe, modern criminal justice and judicial facilities that create the best outcomes. The county needs additional rooms for classes, medical care and behavioral treatment which will allow the office to provide group therapy, anger management, health education, life-skill classes, programs for drug and alcohol addiction, etc. It will cost the county about $400 million for Phases I & II to build new facilities (1,600 new jail beds, new booking & release center, classrooms, etc). Future needs include a new courthouse for $364 million and $36 million for improvements to the District Attorney's facilities.
