Rotary News

ROTARY NEWS - July 13, 2009                               Judy Moore, Editarian

President Deb called us to order, realized no one present was prepared to give an invocation, but rose to the occasion! As all presidents soon learn, Sue Esman is ALWAYS prepared. She slipped our new president a very appropriate invocation, and we were again reminded of how lucky we are to have Sue!

We were also reminded how blessed we are with arts & culture in Kalamazoo as Anne Drummond relayed the events going on in just this one week.

As we stumbled through 4 lines of one song, it was obvious we had been intimidated by the Baptists meeting (and singing!) in the other half of the ballroom.  

CONTRIBUTIONS COMMITTEE PRESENTATIONS: Steve Kreider presented two checks on behalf of our Club: (1) to Holly Fisher of the Smart Shop Metals Center for a new piece of equipment; and (2) to Scott Schrum of Residential Opportunities, Inc. for renovation of the Stone Cottage veterans facility in Galesburg. Steve also reminded us that it is our $100 charitable contributions and our happy bucks that make these grants possible. 

INDUCTION INTO THE HAS BEENS: Past President, Pat Norris, noted that Past President Rex Bell had not been properly inducted into the Has Beens Club, as the group only meets on June 31 annually, and this year the Changing of the Guard took place on June 29^th. So, he read the detailed minutes of that meeting, where Rex was properly voted into this august group. (I looked it up and august means "inspiring awe") ????

HAPPY BUCKS: Rick Briscoe for 3 weeks of traveling on 3 continents; Julie Peterson for her daughter at West Point; Thell Woods for a birthday celebration & ride in an open-cockpit Stearman; Amy Krone for completing a bicycle tour she didn't really want to do; and Roger Storteboom for the Kalamazoo Airport allowing his kids/grandkids to board even when they arrived at the airport LATE!
 

PROGRAM: Rotarian Ken Collard, City Manager of Kalamazoo, introduced Jeff Hadley, Chief of Public Safety for the City.  Jeff has been in Kalamazoo for one year, and prior to that was in Ft. Wayne for 14 years and Cape Coral FL for 4 years, all in public safety work. His training has included the Drug Enforcement Agency as well as the FBI Academy.  

He outlined the three current areas of focus within the department:  youth violence & crime; addressing blight in neighborhoods; and working cooperatively within city government and within the community. 

Chief Hadley places a great deal of emphasis on building relationships. This is being emphasized with youth, but also the community.  By spending more time on foot in the neighborhoods, officers are concentrating on this goal. They are also using the Fixing Broken Windows philosophy. That means working on blight in the neighborhoods as a way to prevent future crime and develop ownership on the part of the residents.   

One startling statistic shared by the Chief during Q & A: Kalamazoo probably spends 2-3 times the resources on drug enforcement as other cities our size.

A Citizen Advisory Committee will be formed soon to provide input to the department on hiring/recruiting, reviewing anti-profiling data, and overall improvement of services.

Chief Hadley has made a good start in his efforts to establish relationships, and Rotary will look forward to hearing more about the progress on those efforts.