Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

December 21, 2015

Lunch Menu: salad bar, beef stroganoff, noodles, fried fish, scalloped potatoes, rolls. Called to order by President Jay Bahner at 12:30pm. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Ken Stodder. The Invocation was led by Greg Pierson.

VISITING ROTARIANS: None.

GUESTS OF ROTARIANS: None.

STUDENT GUESTS: None.

BIRTHDAYS: Chuck Ellsworth, Richard Borough, Russ Harris, Virginia Bass, Walt Shimasaki, Hank Ingham, Wendy Purnell.

ANNIVERSARIES: Sean McLaughlin, Doug Lanning, Dan Heinen.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Matthew Owen announced that the Annual Fundraiser will be Saturday, February 20^th.  The dinner will be held at the Humboldt County Department of Education’s new conference center.  There will be $5,000 in cash prizes.  He is looking for prizes. If you can help please let him know.

RECOGNITIONS: John Burger was asked by President Jay if he had any confessions to make.  Eventually we learned that John had recently traveled to Santa Barbara, where he owns a second house. They had Thanksgiving scheduled with his kids.  His son had surgery and John had a problem with his heart and ended up in the ER.  They fixed it but John and his son were not much fun on Thanksgiving.

President Jay told us a Christmas Story.  Back in the day when microwaves first came into being his first wife had invited the entire family to Christmas dinner.  His sister thought it would be a great idea to microwave the turkey instead of baking it.  The turkey looked beautiful.  Jay said it was nice and browned, just gorgeous.  Everybody was sitting around the table anticipating their first bite of turkey.  Unfortunately when his Dad began to carve the turkey the turkey exploded and disintegrated into a million, inedible pieces.   The moral.  Good thing there’s canned ham at 24 hour, 365 day a week convenience stores. 

Gary Todoroff noted that St. Bernard’s just won the State Championship in their division.  A round of applause was given to St. Bernard’s.

SPENGLER-HOWARD RAFFLE:  Rotary Hat: Jim Howard  $10: Greg Pierson. Happy Camper Mug- Keith Crossley.  







Patrick Cleary drew a card for a pot of $450 and won the consolation prize of a Rotary paperweight.

GUEST SPEAKER: Humboldt Bay Coast Guard Commander, Arthur Snyder was our guest speaker.  Snyder has been in the Coast Guard for 36.5 years.  He enlisted in 1979 (most of us thought he was probably 10 when he enlisted).  For the first 10 years he fixed electronics on aircraft.  His goal in joining the Coast Guard was to enjoy the benefits and gain experience.  But he liked it so much he decided to enlist in officer training.  He’s been an officer for 26 years and loves it.  He’s now the sector commander for Humboldt Bay. 

He showed us a slide show that talked about the history of the Coast Guard.  The Coast Guard was formed in 1790 shortly after America won its independence from Great Britain. Alexander Hamilton worked with Congress on ways to fuel the economy as America tried to recover from the war.  They decided to tax ships (especially British ships) that were coming to America with goods.  The founding organization of the Coast Guard was formed.  It was called, The Revenue Marine Service which eventually became the United States Coast Guard.  Over the years other organizations have been folded in under the umbrella of the Coast Guard including the Steamboat Inspection Service in 1838, The Bureau of Navigation in 1789 and in 2000 the Department of Homeland Security.  They are charged with drug interdiction; search & rescue; marine safety; defense readiness; migrant interdiction; ports, waters & coastal security; living marine resources, marine environmental protection, ice operations, other law enforcement.  Locally they have two patrol boats – one in Crescent City and one in Eureka, 2 motor lifeboats- one in Fort Bragg and one here, 3 helicopters with a fourth one coming in April.

MEETING ADJOURNED: 1:30pm.

Respectfully submitted, 

Alicia Cox

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

December 7 , 2015

The meal was chicken steaks, mashed potatoes, vegetable medley, and brownies for dessert. 

President Jay Bahner had Hank Ingham lead the pledge.  Carlton Nielsen gave the invocation. 

Former Rotarian Frank White was having Cancer surgery. 

Jay Bahner’s Christmas party is on December 12^th at his house and he hopes everyone will attend. 

Nathan Nilsen was recognized for his family’s stores being in business for 115 years.  They have four locations. 

Dennis Hunter was asked to stand because the 49er’s won their game in overtime.  Dennis has a bet with Jay that they won’t win more than 7 games. 

Burt Campton’s cell phone went off, and Dale Warmuth heard it and ratted him out.  No fine.  

The Logger Classic is coming up and Jay needs 20 Rotarians to come up with $100 apiece to fund the game. 

Don Leonard was singled out for a $10 fine.  It wasn’t clear why. 

Our program for the day was the Limited Edition, led by EHS music teacher Charles Young.  The group sung Christmas carols including What Child Is This, the Coventry Carol, I’ll be home for Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock, and as always, spread out through the room to do a nice rendition of Carol of The Bells. 

Charles Young is an honorary Paul Harris Fellow and his group has been invited to several singing competitions.  Some students are going to the All State Choir.  Not much else to report.  Jay ended with one of Yogi Berra’s quotes- “Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded” 

Submitted by Hank Ingham

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

November 9, 2015

The menu was fried chicken, spaghetti, and mixed vegetables. 

Jay Bahner rang the bell, and it was another day in Rotaryville. “Some people claim there’s a woman to blame, but I know it’s my own damn fault’. Jimmy Buffet.  Jay asked all the military veterans in the club to stand up and lead us in the pledge. Then Captain Bruce Rupp gave the invocation, thanking all the veterans for securing the freedom of generations.  Next week the District Governor will be our speaker, so no early leavers. 

Dennis Hunter was recognized for the 49’ers win last Sunday.  He and Jay have a bet, but in order for Jay to win, the Niners have to win five of the next 7 games.  Pretty unlikely. 

Tom Schallert got to spin the imaginary Rotary Wheel.  It’s his mother’s 90^th birthday and his 40^th anniversary.  He also won a chair at a recent Rotary event.  John Fullerton donated the chair.  When Tom sat in it the arm broke off. No refunds, said Jay. 

Pat Folkins encouraged everyone to give $100 to the foundation in November as a tribute to Jim Howard, who will be 100 on December 1^st. 

Drawing: J. Warren Hockaday won $10, Rick Littlefield won the coin, and Tom Schallert failed to win the pot. 

Our Speaker was Bill Damiano, head of the Humboldt Probation Department.  He told us that the idea of probation came from John Augustus.  In 1841 he was attending a sentencing hearing for a young miscreant and was so moved by his plight that he offered the man a chance to rehabilitate himself, gave him a job and a place to stay and offered to teach him a trade.  

Damiano manages the juvenile detention system.  Now they use actuarial tools to assess whether the juvenile is at risk to re-offend.  They also supervise 225 adult felons.  The State used to handle all felony probation, but because of AB109 they now take the lesser offenders while the state gets the murders and sex offenders. 

Humboldt County has the only Regional Juvenile Drug treatment center.  He says crime stats are going down in spite of what appears to be a large homeless population. 70 percent of offenders have substance abuse and mental problems.  The most reliable indicator of future felonious behavior is anti-social behavior and beliefs.  Those people think differently than us.

Submitted by Hank Ingham

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

November 2, 2015

The menu:  Roast beef Swiss chicken mashed potatoes and a brownie for dessert. 

President Jay Bahner convened the meeting.  Dale Warmuth led us in the pledge to the flag.  Greg Pierson gave the invocation.  Jay noted that Jim Howard is feeling better now. 

The club observed a moment of silence for Steve Brodhag, a fellow Rotarian who passed away recently . 

Rick Littlefield and his wife went to Yosemite for a rotary Conference and then took 30 family members on a cruise to celebrate their 40^th anniversary. He chose to contribute $310 to Paul Harris.  

Jim Howard’s 100^th birthday is coming up on Tuesday December 1^st, so the club meeting has been moved to that date.  He’ll get a key to the city and other awards. 

Pat Folkins reminded us that this is foundation month, and the annual Foundation Dinner will be held on November 14^th.  If you buy raffle tickets Bill Gates Foundation will match each dollar with two more dollars. 

J. Warren Hockaday was recognized for an addition to his family. His wife just returned from Africa with a 6 year old girl they adopted from an orphanage in Ghana.  Her name is “Faith.”  The adoption process was arduous but the result made it all worthwhile.

No one won the raffle money. 

Our speaker was the selfsame J. Warren Hockaday.  He talked about the contributions the TV station had made to the community and the importance of local news stories in keeping the viewers informed about local events.   

Hank Ingham then made a brief appearance showing a power point presentation filled with rare photos concerning the history of KIEM-TV3, which signed on the air in October of 1953.  Some of them were real. 

Jay then continued talking about the young people just out of school who make the station their first job, and go on to other markets as soon as they can put a resume tape together.  In spite of the frequent turn over in news, KIEM still has a core group of people who have been with the station for 30 years or more. He finished with five minutes to spare. 

Submitted by Hank Ingham