Todd Lewis,
President
Keith Johnson, Vice President
Ray Baker, Secretary
Dave Johnson, Treasurer
Steve Walters, Director
Larry Haltom, Director
Jack Davis, Tail Twister
David Hardwick, Lion Tamer
Our last meeting took place on Monday, January 27th at the Millgrove
Methodist Church. The ladies of the Millgrove Methodist Church served an
excellent meal. Our guest was Harley Milton, Sheriff of Owen County. President
Todd Lewis called the meeting to order at 7:00p.m. Please remember the
February 24th meeting will be held at the Millgrove Methodist Church at 7:00
p.m.
• Old business
• Dues- 2003 dues are now due. Dues are $35.00 per year. You can bring
them to the next meeting, send them to the club address or drop them at the bank
with Todd Lewis.
• Recruiting Committee report- We need to replace Steve Wittenauer on the
committee. We would like two members more. We will continue to ask people on our
list. We are planning a trip committee as well as a committee to organize a
Jonah fish fry. Be sure you have plenty of our club pamphlets to hand out.
• Brackets and banners for Main street- Lions Bill Terrill, Dave Johnson,
Larry Haltom and Todd Lewis risked the elements to place banners (11-30) and
take down banners(1-11). The banners looked great. They were on every pole this
year. Thanks gentlemen. The club received a thank you card from the Main Street
committee.
• Budget- The new budget, which was presented at the November meeting,
was passed. Last year’s budget was $1500 short. This year we don’t expect to
have the shortfalls we experienced last year. We will have added income from the
FunFest and Jonah fish fry.
• New Business
• Handshake Winner- Bill Terrill was the handshake winner.
• Attendance- 50.00% of our members attended the January meeting.
Great!!!!! Let’s keep it up.
• Entertainment for meetings- Club members are being asked to provide
entertainment for up coming meetings. They have been scheduled as follows:
February- Jack Davis, Dick Gaddis
March- Larry Haltom, Dave Johnson
April- Norv Gottula, Larry Pickens
May-Ray Baker, Mike Buis
June- Keith Johnson/David Hardwick/Ron Hughes
• March meeting- The meeting in March will be held at the American
Legion. It will feature a performance by Tom Rossman. Tom is a trick shot
pool champion from Cloverdale who has been featured on ESPN. This would be an
excellent opportunity to invite a perspective member.
• 500 track project- The club voted to give up stand 18 at the track and
only work on Race days. This will allow us to focus our resources on the days we
make our biggest profits.
• Other committees- The nomination committee will need to replace Steve
Wittenauer and begin the process of finding nominees for a club election in
March or April. The Civic award committee will need to meet and plan a new time
table for the Civic award.
• New Members- Please welcome our two new members, Suzanne Hall and Peggy
Johnson. These ladies represent our club’s first female members.
• Guest Speaker- Our guest speaker was Owen County Sheriff Harley Milton.
Sheriff Milton is in his 4th term as Owen County Sheriff. Sheriff Milton stated
his biggest job is managing the County Jail. The jail was built in 1985 and was
designed for 36 inmates. It currently houses 75. The biggest obstacle in running
the jail is the medical expense of the inmates. Last year the jail had $30,000
budgeted for these expenses while the actual total was $55,000. Another budget
drain on his department is for vehicles. Each car is equipped with laptop
computers and GPS units. Each car is replaced when it has 130,000 to 150,000
miles. This means that two cars are rotated out of service each year. Owen
County has well trained officers. In addition to their academy training, each
officer goes through 32 hours of training each year. This goes beyond the state
requirement of 16 hours. There are eight officers on staff and an additional
support staff of 15 reserves. The Homeland Security Act has placed a great
burden on County Sheriff Departments. All officers need added vaccinations as
well as HAZMAT and First Responders training. Sheriff Milton would like to
provide cameras in each car, but the cost is prohibitive at $5500 per car.
Currently the department had 10 cars. Owen County has two well trained police
dogs for drug detection, lost person recovery, bomb detection and many other
uses. Sheriff Milton explained that the surrounding counties have a good
neighbor policy. This allows for the area counties to share resources for
emergencies of all kinds. Sheriff Milton ended his talk by stating that he tells
his officers that community respect is their highest priority and it must be
earned everyday. I’m sure Owen County is proud to have Sheriff Milton and his
staff protecting them.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 pm. The next meeting will be at 7:00 pm
Monday, February 24th at the Millgrove Methodist Church. Until next meeting,
Bite’em.