Rotary Club of Villa Park Newsletter
Get Your Donations In & Tickets Sold For Our Fall Fundraiser
This week's meeting began with an invocation by Bill Baker, who brought us to attention using the Boy Scout symbol of 2 fingers held high. Jay Applebaum led the Pledge of Allegiance and Bryan Nash led us through the Rotary Four Way Test. With our Fall Fundraiser being two weeks away we sang Roll Out The Barrel just to get in the proper mood.
Guests:
Bob Fateaux- candidate for Villa Park City Council
Mariane Koepnick- up for membership
Sylvan Swartz- joined us to hear today's speaker
Adam Probolsky- Today's speaker
Birthdays/Anniversaries:
None noted today
Announcements:
Bob Bell- spoke today about the Fire Authority and the Fireman's Unions efforts to
discontinue the Volunteer Fireman's Program and take away Villa Park's Engine 23.
There is another meeting at the Fire Authority Building in Irvine tonight at 6:30 PM.
Bob encouraged everyone who can make it to come out and defend the right to
continue this program. Brad Reese will be there and will do his best, but needs
our communities support. 245 reserve jobs are at stake and once the decision
is made they cannot be replaced. Brad pointed out how 9 of the current union
fire fighters actually live out of state and then noted that all of the Volunteers
live in or around the City of Villa Park. Please help support Bob, Brad and
our community.
Bryan Nash- updated us on the upcoming Fall Festival - donations have been coming in, but
we need to focus on ticket sales in the next two weeks. Our target number is
250 or more to make our goal of $25,000
Bob Kreisberg encouraged everyone to commit to making a cash contribution or
bring in your donations as soon as possible. Don't forget about the restaurant
gift cards, this is a win-win for the restaurant and the club.
Steve Stern- announced we need to do one more work day at Teri's home to get all the final
details done. That will be this Sunday Sept 26 at 11 AM
Linda Bartrom-Olsen announced there will be a Vocational Services Committee meeting
next Wednesday evening at her home beginning at 6PM. "Soft drinks provided"
Greg Mills- announced the next board meeting will also be next Wednesday from 4:30-
5:50 in the City Hall Green Room. He also asked that everyone get their donations
or checks in for the upcoming fundraiser and get out and sell tickets.
Wayne Silzel announced that the family of Frank Collins wants to donate a buggy to the city.
He's not sure where the city would put it.
Happy Bucks:
Steven Pollack was very happy to announce that his wife Loretta had a very successful surgery and that the pathology report came back negative.
Steve and Loretta wanted to thank everyone who sent cards and flowers.
Steve and Loretta also are going to Moro Bay tomorrow so Steven can do one of his
100 mile bike rides.
Mark Schmidt- took his 2 sons to Minneapolis to see the USC Minnesota Game. USC
won and Mark was happy to be there.
Millie Alexander- was happy the San Diego Chargers beat the Jacksonville Jaguars last Sunday.
She wound up with a "farmer's tan" and went to the Villa Park Medical Center and got a
spray tan to hide her uneven color. She is going to wear a strapless dress to husband
Craig's 40th reunion and was happy that the spray on tan solved her dilemma.
John Broussard is happy to be sprucing up his home with new paint and carpet.
He was passing out cards for Jean's hairstylist Scot who has been making up the
candy gift boxes for the kids at the Ronald McDonald House.
Bob Meyer- had good news and bad news. The good news is that when the competition
heard Bob was entering his award winning German Chili mit Sauerkraut they were
quaking in their boots. The bad news is the competition was cancelled. Bob will
donate all the funds back to the club.
Craig Beinlich reminded everyone that there will be a Tree Farm Work Party this Saturday from
9 AM-12 Noon
He is also still checking out possible venues for our Holiday Party on January 13th.
Eric Sense let us know there is another budding thespian in the family. His oldest son, who attends
Lutheran High auditioned for a part in the upcoming show The Wizard of Oz.
He and Stan Van Den Berg's son will appear as Flying Monkeys. Eric will get us
the dates of the show- end of October. Lutheran High puts on some incredible shows in a
beautiful theatre.This is a good opportunity to see a classic show in a wonderful setting at
great prices.
Drawing- $1424 - Ron Accornero drew a 7- there was actually a controversy as to who had won the opportunity to draw. Steven Pollack and Lesslie Giacobbi also thought they had the winning ticket.
Secret Greeter- John Broussard.
Speaker: Adam Probolsky - Pollster
Adam does what he termed public opinion research and often does polling for large corporations, cities and as we learned the fireman's union.
Heres what we learned:
1. The number one concern today is the economy and the job market
at the local level most people are concerned with bringing jobs to their community and although
they express frustration with the state and federal governments they tend to be happy with
thier local communities and local leaders.
2. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is not very popular right now and consistently gets
grades of D or F in most areas of concern. Right now the governors race between Jerry Brown
and Meg Whitman is a dead heat, but Brown is expected to pick up in the poles and pull ahead.
Whitman has unlimitied financial resources and will probably outspend Brown. Brown has strong
union support, but needs to get more support in general to win.
3. California Senators Race- Barbara Boxer vs Carly Fiorina- Boxer just came out with a good hit
add reminding Californians how Fiorina exported jobs overseas when she was CEO of Hewlett-
Packard. He predicts this will be a tight race.
4. California Politics- He predicts California will be a democratic run state for many years to come.
The districts have been created to protect the incumbents.
5. Legalization of Marijuana- the proposition is poorly written, but public support seems to be
indifferent or growing for legalization. He predicts future legalization.
6. Proposition 25- lowers the requirement from 2/3 majority to simple majority for budget passage.
Adam feels this would virtually render Republicans as useless. Democrats in California
can easily pass budget items. He feels this will pass
He spoke briefly about earmarks where local politicians attempt to bring cash into their district for pet projects. It only makes up about 2% of the federal budget.
A brief discussion broke out about the Fire Authority (for which Adam works) vs the Volunteer Fireman. Adam clearly was looking at the problem from the perspective of the union fireman and was educated about the reality of the problem by Bob Bell and Brad Reese.
Adam's take home message: Focus on the your local government if you want to have the most impact.
Next Week's Meeting Assignments:
Greeter: Linda Bartrom-Olsen
Pledge: Craig Beinlich
Invocation: Bob Bell
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