Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

January 13, 2014

Steve Justus led the flag salute and Dan Heinen gave the invocation. 

Visiting Rotarians 
Cindy Denbo of Southwest Club.

Guests of Rotarians 
Steven Wright was the guest of Steve Justus and Tom Strickland from Boy Scouts of America was the guest of Kim Bauriedel.






Birthdays 
Bob Morse 1/8
Neal Carnam 1/10
Corky Cornwell 1/29
Chris Freeman 1/25
Glenn Goldan 1/27
David Hull 1/25

Anniversaries 
Bruce and Marilyn Rupp 1/15
Warren and Lisa Hockaday 1/18
Dennis and Karen Hunter 1/28

Announcements 
Pat Folkins introduced Jim Hunter as our newest Paul Harris member. Pat gave a bit of background on the Paul Harris Fellowship to the club before giving the certificate and pin to Jim. The club stood for Mr. Hunter.

Lisa Slack said the Clarke Museum is doing its 3^rd Murder Mystery Roundup next Saturday 1/25. Tickets are $50. Contact Lisa, web page is clarkehistorical@att.net or call  443-1947.

Pat Folkins got fined $50 for wearing a 49ers tie, but suggested that our President get fined for not knowing certain arcane details about the Raiders; the president turned the table on him for not knowing where the Raiders first played.

Nick Bertell stood looking clean cut and green-tied, but was nevertheless fined $50 for being a Mason or something like that.

Ziggy and all agreed that Mike Cunningham did a fine job organizing the Christmas party, but pictures are still missing. Mike passed the buck to Carlton Nielsen and Carlton to others whose names won’t be mentioned. The pictures are still missing. No fine—yet.

Steve Lafferty keeps attendance records for our club and was recognized because he and Greg Gardiner are the only two members to have 100% attendance last year.  Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, President Ziggy fined them both $100 (to Paul Harris) for exemplary attendance.

Continuing on the theme of punishments meted out for good behavior, the bearded wanderer, Mr. Hank Pierson, was recognized for being here two weeks in a row. He claims to have lost his badge, but should not expect credit for 100% attendance because the president is wise to such ploys.

Ziggy chided Jason Eads for moving into his neighborhood, saying, “There goes my neighborhood, with all these lawyers for neighbors.”

John Bradley said Backpacks for kids served 114 kids every week at Alice Burney, Lafayette and Grant schools with some help from other service clubs. April is a big event to raise money for Backpacks for Kids and John will give more details soon. John was happy to put in $50 for his announcement.

Nancy Dean and Alicia Cox were the raffle winners.

Program 
Dave Parris introduced our guest speaker, prefacing his introduction with mention that this week is historic because of someone who will retire after 50 years of service: Murl Harpham. The club rose to its feet in recognition of Murl’s outstanding service with Eureka Police Department.

Robert Losacco is a Community Resource person for California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). He is in charge of volunteers, chaplains and donations at Pelican Bay (PB).  PB State Prison is California’s only level four maximum-security prison, so they get the worst inmates. To give us a clue about just how bad the PB prisoners are, he highlighted the fact that these prisoners have to “earn their right to get to Pelican Bay,” by acting like knuckle-heads after their incarceration. No one is sentenced directly to PB.

CDCR facts: CDCR runs 34 state prisons, 41 fire camps and 16 community correctional facilities. It employs 24,000 peace officers, 1,500 state parole agents and 700 criminal investigator / special agents. It has a staggering $8.9 billion dollar budget and incarcerates over 134,000 inmates. The cost of each inmate is over $48,000 dollars per year. Higher security inmates cost about $72,000 dollars per year, and those inmates with medical needs can cost us $102,000 dollars per year.

CDCR is going to hire 7,000 new officers in the near future. Pelican Bay currently needs 135 correctional officers to fill their openings. Pay and benefits are good, says Robert, affirming, “Once you get in, it’s hard to get out.” California CDCR employees are among the highest paid law enforcement salaries in the U.S. and it is not unusual for overtime pay to exceed one’s base salary. With CAL/PERS Retirement a CDCR employee can retire at age 55. At 27 years your retirement pay is over 100% of your working salary.  Other incentive pay options are available from taking college units to passing a Physical Fitness test all cost taxpayers extra money.

He made the claim that 84% of what they do in the prisons is due to some sort of litigation; I think he meant litigation other than the trial of the prisoners--things like ACLU lawsuits.

For those interested in a captivating second career go to www.joinCDC.com.

Respectfully submitted,
Dan Price

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

January 6, 2014

Carlton Nielsen led the pledge, once Ziggy got the microphone to work. 

Dan Heinen did the invocation, calling to mind the recent tragedy at St. Bernards and asking for prayer. 

Ziggy reported that this was the half-way point of his term.  That announcement was followed by an emotional outpouring of screaming and catcalls from his ardent fans- or maybe not. 

Carol Rische announced the deadline for submitting applications to Rotary’s small grants committee, January 30^th. 

Kim Bauriedel gave us a report on exchange student Daniel.  His mother flew in from Vladyvostok and boy, are her arms tired.  He’s visiting her in LA.  Sam recently won a wrestling trophy.  His arms are tired too. 

Ziggy got a call from Mike Moreland in Arizona.  He’s doing well and wishes us all the best. 

Now it was Time for Recognition.  Burt Campton is currently unemployed, having sold his business to Consolidated Electric. $50. 

Bruce Rupp went to England to visit his daughter and new granddaughter.  $50. 

Sally Arnot purchased a second home in Palm Desert.  $50. 

Christian Hill was lauded for having reached 1.2 million of St. Joseph’s goal of 2 million for new cancer equipment. $50. 

John Winzler was commended for having kept breathing for the whole year.  $50. 

Bob Palmrose was at Costco recently and completely snubbed Ziggy.  It cost him $50 even though he’s a visiting Rotarian. 

Jim Howard was recognized for continuing to violate the Brown Act, starting way back when the city councilmen used to meet in his shoeshine parlor. 

Finally, Keith Crossley broke the streak of $50 fines, awarded a t-shirt for his recent picture in the newspaper. 

Kathy Smith and John Bradley won the Humboldt County Science Fair Spengler raffle.  

Angie presenting a video on Humboldt Grass Fed Beef.

Program 

Matthew Owen introduced Angie Schwab and Don Banducci, who represent “Humboldt Made.”  It’s a non-profit tasked with promoting the artisanal wares of Humboldt County businesses.  They used a Headwaters Fund grant to produce videos highlighting local producers, including Pacific Outfitters, Sun Valley Bulb Farm, Mad River Brewery, Dick Taylor Chocolates, Wallace and Hines, Eel River Organic Beef, and Moonstone Crossing Wines. 

Angie Schwab & Don Banducci

They also funded a trip to Humboldt by Whole Foods which resulted in $250,000 worth of orders. The videos were created by Don, Angie, and Malcolm DeSoto and are up on U-Tube. They would like us to disseminate the videos through the social media. They would also like us to be members.  A business membership in Humboldt Made is $250.  A Community Supporter membership is $100. 

At the end Ziggy touted his record of getting the meetings over at or before 1:30pm.  He has indeed done a great job.  As a tribute I have made this Burl as short as is possible. 

Quickly scrawled by Hank Ingham

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

December 16, 2013

Lunch Menu:  Salad bar, chicken, beef, rice pilaf, assorted vegetables, rolls, dessert

Called to order by President Ziggy at 12:30pm.

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Walt Shimasaki.

The Invocation was led by: Greg Williston.

Guests of Rotarians

Greg Gardiner introduced Charles Young of Eureka High School, a Paul Harris Fellow.  Charles proudly showed the club his Rotary pin.

Arnold Klein introduced his guest, Dr. Kitty Poterak, and her daughter who was in town for the holidays.

Dave Dillon introduced his wife, Carol.   

Ted Loring introduced Ely Savage, our outbound student and his son, David Loring, formerly an outbound to Germany (also a former member of Limited Edition)

Birthdays

Jay Bahner, Richard Borough, Greg Bowen, Mike Leggins, Virginia Bass, Chuck Ellsworth, Russ Harris, Walt Shimasaki, Hank Ingham, Wendy Purnell, Anybody not sitting at the head table was fined $5.

Anniversaries

John Bradley, Doug Lanning, Dan Heinen, Smith, Bruce Smith, Dale Stockly, Wayne Wilson.

Announcements

Logger Classic- President Ziggy thanked the Rotarians that came to the table and donated a total of $2,000 to make the Logger Classic happen this year.

Toys for Tots- Greg Gardiner said that normally at this time he’s panicked at this time of the year about whether or not they’re going to have enough toys but not this year.  The community has responded big time.  Even with the addition of Mendocino this year, they’re still doing well.  10,000 toys so far.  Blue Lake Casino has been a big contributor contributing 800 toys, 6 or 7,000 gift cards plus a check for $52,000.

Recognitions

John Burger was fined $50 for going to Santa Rosa for a knee replacement surgery. 

Wayne Wilson was fined $60 for his 59^th anniversary.

Rotary will be dark for the next two weeks. Our next meeting will be on January 6^th.

Raffle

$10 to: Dr. Joan Davies-Harper       $10 to: Arnold Klein

Guest  Speaker

Eureka High School’s Limited Edition entertained us with a beautiful performance.

Meeting adjourned at 1:15pm.

Respectfully submitted, 

Alicia Cox

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
December 9, 2013

Lunch Menu:  Salad bar, chicken Kiev, beef stroganoff, scalloped potatoes, assorted vegetables and dessert.

Called to order by President Ziggy at 12:30pm

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Steven Lafferty.

The Invocation was led by Bruce Rupp, who called for a moment of silence in memory of Eureka Rotarian, Dick Nash who recently passed away.

Visiting Rotarians

Mike Brown, Fortuna; Les Merrill, Southwest.

Guests of Rotarians

Dr. Kim Bauriedel introduced his good friend, Dr. David O’Brien, who recently moved back to Eureka to take the position of President and CEO of St. Joseph Hospital.

Student Guest

Our Russian exchange student, Daniel, was supposed to participate in a wrestling tournament in Oregon but it was cancelled because, in his words, “Americans can’t drive in the snow.”  He did take 1^st place at a tournament in Crescent City out of 24 people in his weight class!

Birthdays

Jay Bahner on December 15^th and Greg Bowen on December 10^th.

Announcements 

Logger Classic-  President Ziggy said that the Logger Classic was left out of this year’s budget.  We need to raise $2,000 in order to participate. (We’ve been a sponsor of this event for over 20 years.)  If you can help by making a donation please let him know.

Toys for Tots-  Greg Gardiner said that last year Toys for Tots provided gifts for 5,000 kids.  This year they will provide even more.  If you can help there are plenty of opportunities for volunteers.  This Saturday there will be a toy sort at Western Web where they will figure out how many toys they have so far and what they still need.  They will start at 9am and it will take 4 to 6 hours.  There will be Christmas music playing and it’s always a lot of fun.  On the 19^th of December there will be a lunch at the Elks Lodge for 140 middle school kids.  On Sunday the 22^nd will be the biggest event they hold, at Eureka High School, where they distribute gifts to kids. 

Christmas Party- If you haven’t purchased your tickets yet, but want to go, contact Mike Cunningham prior to Thursday, December 12^th.  Please bring a toy to donate to Toys for Tots.

Recognitions

Greg Williston was fined $50 because he misses his exchange student, Dan, who has since moved to the Bauriedel’s.  

Ted Loring was maxed out on his recognitions and received a t-shirt because Chuck Ellsworth was cleaning out his house and shared some photos at Rotary of Ted with hair.

Raffle

$10 to: Hank Ingham       $10 to: Will Kay

Guest Speaker

Ikolo and Sarah Griffin reside in the Bay Area, but have been living in Eureka since mid- October as the artistic directors of the annual Nutcracker Ballet.  A husband and wife team, they are both professional dancers as well as artistic directors.  They will also be dancing in the ballet, performing as the Arabian Couple in the 2^nd act, as well as a couple of other parts. 

They said the performance is a community driven ballet.  They are holding 4 to 5 ballet classes a week with youth in the area and are excited about adding their own fresh perspective to the traditional ballet. 

The Nutcracker will be held at the Arkley Center, which is being reopened just for this production.  Dates and times are available on their web site: www.atlpublishing.com/North_Coast_Dance or at North Coast Dance: 426 F Street, Eureka; Eureka Fabrics:  412 2nd Street, Eureka or Parasol Arts: 211 G Street Eureka.

They have been dancing for many years, Ikolo for 30 years and Sarah for 20.  Many of those years they participated in the Nutcracker Ballet in other markets.  Ikolo was a dancer with the San Francisco Ballet for many years and has traveled in Europe with the Dance Theater of Harlem as well.  Sarah was also a dancer with the Dance Theater of Harlem, which is where she met Ikolo. 

They are excited about the upcoming Nutcracker Ballet and hope to build upon this year’s performance by engaging the community more as they visit schools and local youth groups to encourage youth to engage in the art of dancing.

Meeting adjourned at 1:19 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Alicia Cox

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

December 2, 2013

Lunch Menu: Salad bar, canned peaches, corned beef, meatloaf, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, gravy, rolls, dessert.

Called to order by Acting President Gregg Gardiner at 12:30pm

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Dan Price. (Gregg asked that he lead the pledge in honor of Dan’s son who just left for Afghanistan.)

The Invocation was led by Greg Pierson

Visiting Rotarians

Greg Seiler- Fortuna Rotary and Les Merrill- Southwest Rotary

Guests of Rotarians

Arnold Klein introduced his guest, Dr. Kitty Poterak. Fred Sundquist introduced Jason Chan, CEO of City Ambulance of Eureka. Matt Owen introduced Maggie Fleming, who is running for District Attorney in the upcoming election. Don Smullin introduced Paula Patton, Publisher of the Times-Standard

Student Guests

Eric Bergel introduced two Interact students Jordan Rossi and Kendall Duncan.

Exchange Student

Dan recently left the Williston’s and moved to the Bauriedel’s, his second host family.  He enjoyed Thanksgiving and liked eating turkey, watching football and watching his father drink beer, (although he didn’t have any beer because he’s not old enough).  He introduced his wrestling coach from Eureka High School, who is also a Rotarian in McKinleyville.  

Birthdays

Jay Reed on 12/5, Jack Macdonald on 12/5, and a standing ovation for Jim Howard who celebrated his 98th birthday on December 1st!

Anniversaries

Bert Campton’s 29th anniversary with Rotary, Jay and Vonel Bahner will celebrate their 32nd wedding anniversary on 12/5.  With a little prompting from acting President Gardiner, Jay confessed that he proposed in a bowling alley and that they went on two honeymoons to Hawaii and Las Vegas.

Announcements

Mike Cunningham reminded everyone to sign up for the Christmas Party at the Ingomar Club on December 14th.  Information is on the tables or you can email or call him. About 40 people have signed up so far.  Generally there are about 80 that attend, most of who sign up at the last minute.

Acting President Gardiner said that the secure portion of the rotary1.org web site is now up and can be accessed by remembering an important date for our club. 

He also talked about Toys for Tots.  This year over 5,000 kids will be served in Humboldt County, plus Weaverville, Leggett and Covelo.  There are two ways to help.  You can send a tax deductible check or drop off a toy to one of 50 or 60 locations. 

Recognitions

Gregg asked all Rotarians who had driven more than 200 miles on Thanksgiving to stand.  The winners were Eric Bergel who went to Coeur D’Alene, Idaho and Matt Messner who went to Seattle, WA.  Those who attended a dinner with 20 or more people were John Winzler with 22, Dan Price with 25 (plus 3 little girls), and Patrick Cleary.

Those Rotarians who had memorized the lyrics to The 12 Days of Christmas didn’t have to pay a fine of $5.  Unfortunately, the majority of the club failed the lyric test and the money was piling up on the tables.  Final lyric winners were:  Lisa Slack- partridge in a pear tree, Keith Crossley- two turtledoves, Nancy Dean– 3 French hens, Jill Macdonald- 4 calling birds, Dennis Hunter- 5 golden rings, Dan Price- 6 geese a laying, Christian Hill- 7 swans a swimming, Greg Pierson- 8 maids a milking, Kathy Smith- 9 ladies dancing, Greg Williston- 10 lords a leaping, Jordan Rossi (our Interact guest)- 11 pipers piping and Nick Bertell- 12 drummers drumming.

Raffle

$10 to:  Matt Messner and $10 to: Dr. Ted Welton.

Program

Our speaker was introduced by Murl Harpham.  Gregg Gardiner noted that Murl Harpham has been with Eureka Police Department (EPD) for 56 years, 4 times as acting Chief.  He asked for applause and Murl received a standing ovation.  Murl then introduced Andrew Mills our new Chief of Police for EPD.  Murl said that despite having a hard time over the past few years finding the right person to head up EPD, this time he knows they’ve got it right.  Andrew Mills has been in law enforcement for 30 years.  The past 27 years in San Diego and prior to that in Michigan. Murl has found him to be an honorable and good person.

Chief Mills said it was hard to follow a legend like Murl. Murl’s belief in the city and Murl’s willingness to put off retirement so many times to help out Eureka, influenced Chief Mills decision to come to Eureka and that the city owes Murl a debt of gratitude. 

He told a “true story” about thinking outside of the box… When he was in San Diego his team was working on a case to expose a cartel.  It took 3 years and they were finally able to arrest the individuals when a detective on the team came up with an out of the box way to “kidnap” a source which eventually led to the indictment of numerous cartel members. Chief Mills added it’s easy to get used to doing things a certain way but sometimes you need to take an out of the box approach. 

He said Eureka is a fabulous community.  He and his wife have received a warm, friendly welcome from numerous community members.  EPD is a great police department.  They have a heavy workload with as many as 400 calls in one day.  Generally 13 or 14 people are receiving those calls.  He estimates that the dispatch center is 40% understaffed. There are great people doing a lot of multitasking. 

He needs DATA about where crime is occurring and when so he can send his men to those trouble spots. He is working with various people to gather that data.  For example after talking with the city attorney they were able to note that 3 people are committing 24% of the crime in Eureka.  Obviously, those 3 people need to be dealt with.

They are putting a foot officer back in Old Town.  During Black Friday weekend they had a presence at the mall and in Henderson Center. 

When he and his wife first drove into Eureka they came from the south and as they entered south Broadway there was a person in a wheelchair in the “fast” traffic lane going north.  He is focusing on what we can do to help alleviate the too many pedestrian vs. vehicle deaths that have occurred.  They are looking at what other cities have done as well as thinking outside of the box about other ideas.

He wants to reduce internal hazards at the police station.  It reeks of marijuana due to the immense amount of confiscated marijuana located on the 3rd floor.  They need to replace or remove the carpeting, which is 3” higher in one place than another and creates a walking hazard.  They need bodies.  He’s sending out letters to other police departments looking for people willing to commit to working in Eureka for a period of time. 

Right now he’s doing a lot of walking and talking… meeting people, getting to know the problems and needs of Eureka. He then answered a number of questions.

Meeting adjourned: 1:30pm

Respectfully submitted, 

Alicia Cox

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

November 25, 2013

Steve Lafferty was called on to lead the pledge.  Bill McAuley gave the invocation.    

Guests included Dan Price’s son Mike, who is in the military and is going to Afghanistan next week.   

Mike Cunningham reminded us that the Rotary Christmas dinner is December 14^th at the Ingomar.  Festivities begin at 5pm and the cost is $75 per head.  

Kim Bauriedel then came to the podium to deliver a gift basket that had been won at the Foundation dinner and somehow left behind.  Before announcing the winner Kim had Ziggy set the delivery charge at $50.  Then he announced the “lucky” winner was Ziggy.   

Gregg Gardiner invited everyone to view the newly remodeled www.rotary1.org.  It now  includes small grants applications and features photos of former Rotary Presidents.  Oh, boy!  Gregg then segued to Toys For Tots.  A website designed by Bob Morse allows schools to securely input the name, sex and age of the needy children to take all the guesswork out of supplying the right gift.  They expect to play Santa for over 5,000 children this year.  They are in need of a 18-22ft truck with a lift gate for a few days.  Call Gregg for details.   

Will Kay was recognized for aiding and abetting Southwest Rotary in “tapping out” his wife Nancy.  Ziggy returned the favor, tapping out Will.   

Mike Martin had the Midas touch.  He found a gold George III guinea from 1775 while he was metal detecting in England.  He also found a silver Denarius from 200 BC.  He was fined $100 to muffled applause.  (see Midas reference above) 

New member Arnie Klein couldn’t find his badge so Ziggy helped him locate it in the badge box for a $50 finders’ fee. 

Ziggy said that Dean Christensen owns the Elks Club.  O.K., $150 fine.   

Raffle winners were Greg Seiler and Steve Lafferty.  

Program

Our program was Brad Mettam, deputy district director for Cal Trans.  He announced that the Willits bypass was 30% done and should be ready in two more construction seasons.  He then showed before and after pictures of the Richardson’s Grove project.  It appeared from the before photos and after artists’ renderings that only a few skinny trees would be removed. No protesters were rendered.  

Moving northward, he discussed the Eureka corridor.  They may put a signal in at Hawthorne for all those pick ups loaded with garbage waiting to make left turns.  They may synchronize all the lights on Broadway and 4^th and 5^th street with a computer that keeps track of traffic in real time.  They may tap dance on the moon.  The Arcata safety corridor was next.  He showed a mock-up of the proposed interchange at Indianola road.  It is a big dirt ramp and an overpass similar to the Roger Rodoni memorial overpass at 36 and 101.  He then briefly mentioned removing the billboards in the corridor.  Chuck Ellsworth got his dander up, whatever that means.  Finally he mentioned that on 101 near Crescent City, at a place called “last chance grade,” the highway will continue to slide into the sea.  That’s the plan unless someone wants to cut a swath through Redwood National Park.  The meeting ended pretty much on time.  Scribed by Hank Ingham