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Upcoming Events
Flash Meeting
Bogey's Shadowbrook
May 16, 2019 5:30 PM
 
Board of Director's Meeting
May 21, 2019
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM
 
Membership Mixer
Bogey's at Shadowbrook Inn & Resort
May 30, 2019 5:30 PM
 
Flash Meeting
Bogey's Shadowbrook
Jun 06, 2019 5:30 PM
 
Board of Director's Meeting
Jun 18, 2019
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM
 
Officer Installation and Awards Banquet
Shadowbrook Resort
Jun 20, 2019 5:30 PM
 
July 3 Fireworks
Memorial Stadium
Jul 03, 2019
 
Speakers
May 16, 2019
Foundation and Rotary Rewards Programs
May 23, 2019
May 23, 2019
Foreign Exchange Student from Brazil
May 30, 2019
P & G - Family Care Plant Manager
Jun 06, 2019
Foreign Exchange Student
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Russell Hampton
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News
Apr 11 Rotary Meeting
Secretary's Note!
I apologize for not having distributed the Apr 4 Bulletin yet, but it will be forthcoming later this week.  However, I did not want to get any further behind so I decided to do the Apr 11 bulletin first.
 
Pledge and Invocation:
 
President Mike Markovitz brought the meeting to order at 12:15 PM at Purkey’s Pink Apple with Mary Tempest leading the Pledge of Allegiance and Dave Wilson giving the Invocation.
 
Guests:
 
Russell Shurtleff – Speaker
Cathy Franko – HANDS of Wyo. Cty
Jeff Swire – Patriot’s Cove
Andres, John & Kike – exchange students
 
Club News:
 
Happy Bucks Highlights:
 
Thanks to Ron Furman who provided homemade maple syrup for today’s meeting.
 
Ad:  Terri Detrick advertised the Business & Professional Women Wine Down on May 16 at 6 pm at the Dietrich Theater. Tickets are $25 and the movie will be Second Act.
 
Ad:  Andres was instrumental with his coding in helping the TAHS Robotic team get to the Worlds Robotics event at the end of this month in Detroit. They are looking for donations to help defray costs for this trip.
 
Flash Meeting
 
The next Flash Meeting will be Thursday – April 18th at 5:30pm at Bogey’s.
 
Board of Directors Meeting
 
The next Board of Director’s Meeting is Tuesday April 16th at 7:30am – 8:30 am at Community Bank Conference Room in Tunkhannock.
 
Check Presentations
 
H.A.N.D.S. of Wyoming County
 
Pres. Mike Markovitz presented a check for $5,000 to H.A.N.D.S. of Wyo Cty. Executive Director Cathy Franko accepted the check.
 

Cathy Franko receiving check from Pres. Mike Markovitz
 
Cathy thanked the club for its continued support for the summer FANS Camp. She mentioned that 6 of 10 children live in poverty in our county.  April is Child Abuse Awareness Month so the timing of this donation is special.
 
Pres. Mike also mentioned that for Child Abuse Awareness month, the movie Babe will be shown at the Dietrich on Apr 14.
 
Patriot's Cove
 
Pres. Mike Markovitz presented a check for $1,000 to Patriots Cove.  Jeff Swire accepted the check.
 
 
Jeff Swire (left) accepting the Patriots Cove check from Pres. Mike Markovitz
 
Jeff thanked the club on behalf of their staff and people served.  They now have 3 miles of trout stream accessible for injured persons serving their country and communities, such as first responders. 
 
They are now getting ready to open their caregivers support center to provide training and support strategies for family members of those injured in service.
 
Exchange Students:
 
Ann Sehne recently attended the Ist International New Generations Conference in Germany.  They want it as a separate entity.  They are now setting up the guidelines.
 
Our District has 7 exchange students outbound for this coming year plus 2 added clubs want inbounds but have no outbounds. Tunkhannock has Jenni Wang from TASD, whose parents own the Manchu Buffet, who will be going to Bolivia.
 
John from Brazil – Went to District Conference at the weekend and met up with the other exchange students and new outbound students. 
 
Although his team lost at volleyball last week, they won their game against Valley West. They won yesterday against Mountain view.  Their Record is 6-1 and looking forward to playoff season and potential District title. Now that the weather is warming up, he can ride in a Mustang with the top down, even though he liked skiing in the cold.
 
Andres from Poland– Was intense last week.  On Thurs, he left with the Robotics team to the National Robotic Competition, instead of attending District Conference. The Team took 6th place in the country. They are looking forward to the International World’s Robotic Championship in Detroit later this month. Their achievements are amazing on such a small budget. Andres proudly remarked that since he codes for the robot, “he gave it a soul”.
 
Kike from Peru – One week ago, he had his second track and field competition and won his first 2 mile race.  This Tues he had his 3rd competition, placing 2nd in jumping and Tunkhannock won overall.
 
He also went to Rotary DC last weekend.  This weekend he is going to Washington DC.
 
Committee Reports:
 
Drug Takeback Project Committee – Frank Oliver / Carol Ziomek
 
Next Drug Take Back – April 27th, 2019.  Please take flyers and rack card to distribute to as many places a possible, especially if you have signed up to cover a particular location. 
 
Rotary Relays Project Committee – Rod Azar
 
35th Annual Rotary Relays Invitational will be held, Wednesday May 1, 2019 at 4:30pm at the Tunkhannock High School Football Field per Rod Azar.   Rain Date – Friday May 10, 2019.
 
Please sign up to help with the Relays, as we need as many members as possible to make this a successful event for the athletes and their supporters.
 
Roadside Cleanup Committee – John Proctor
 
The Spring Roadside Clean up will be Saturday, April 27th, 2019.  Please sign up to help with the cleanup and meet at the Fireplace Restaurant at 9 am. Takes about 1.5 hr.
 
Global Projects Committee – Norm Kelly
 
Our Haiti Global Project was presented to the District Foundation Committee for approval at the District Conference on Fri Apr 5.  Thank you to Jodi Crimmel / Norm Kelly / Jon Buxton / Rick Miller for Presenting to the District.   It was approved by the District Foundation Committee at the Conference to allocate $30,000.00 toward the project from the District. They also met a former District Gov from Haiti and he will move it forward in Haiti Rotary. Still need to get final approval from the Rotary Foundation for their share of the project.
 
District News:
 
District 7410 Training
 
There will be a 2019-2020 District Training Workshop on May 4 at the Holiday Inn East Mountain Road for Club Presidents, Secretaries and Treasurers as well as Club Foundation Chairs as per an announcement from DGE Karen Dematteo.
 
Highlights from District Conference:
 
In addition to the Haiti Project presentation, Pres Mike did a brief presentation on our District Grant for the QCPR system.

Our next Meeting will be Thursday, Apr 18. It will be a Club Assembly so we will not have a guest speaker or other guests, so that we can freely discuss club business.
 
Prior to adjournment, Mary Tempest led the recitation of the 4-Way Test by the attendees.
 
President Mike Markovitz adjourned the meeting at 1:30 PM.

Guest Speaker: 
Judge Russell Shurtleff
Proposed Changes in Criminal Justice Law
 
Russell Shurtleff is the President Judge on the Wyoming-& Sullivan County Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania.
 
Unlike Pres. Mike, he does not use a gavel in court, instead the sheriff’s deputy works great.
 
His son Daniel went to RYLA several years ago and was a Rotary essay contest winner.  He is now at the University of Maine, will graduate May 5 and will be area manager for Amazon in Easton.  He thanked the club for helping his son become the successful young man he has become.
 
Sentencing was last year’s hot judicial topic.  There is new legislation on changing the premises due to a Supreme Court decision.  They are concerned about judge bias and want to put into place a sentencing matrix, rather than the current sentencing guidelines. So far, the matrix is about 64% accurate, but judges are doing better than that rate right now using the current guidelines.
 
A probation reform bill is also now pending, which includes consideration of the number of violations and their consequences.
 
Both reforms would take discretion away from the judges, which can be good or bad depending on the judge.
 
They just had 6 graduates from the Drug Treatment Court, which is a 2.5 year program. Total of 88 graduates so far. 156 people have been accepted into the program and 82% do not reoffend. Treatment Court is working well. The Treatment Court is also partnering with HANDS of Wyo Cty on family life skills parenting classes.
 
Domestic relations – every state and county has a domestic relations office, which were started in 1919 with the Uniform Desertion and Non-Support Act.  Domestic relations office has both court and administration sections.  Wyo Cty collects $3.5 million for child support in a year.
 
How does child support work?  Primary physical custodian can file for child support, forms filled out (expenses & income), then a hearing, information plugged into the computer and recommendation made.  If both parties agree, that is it, but one or both could protest and then go before Judge Shurtleff. If they still don’t agree, it can go to Superior Court. There are contempt hearings if someone does not pay their mandated child support. 
 
Children and Youth can take away a child and seek support for the child in placement, which is a very expensive process.
 
Most common method is wage attachment from their check, processed thru Harrisburg. They caan also take your income tax refund and lottery winnings.  If delinquent, it goes on their credit report and can thus negatively impact their credit report.  They can also suspend their driver’s license and freeze bank accounts as other options.  There can also be contempt court hearings, probation, supervision, up to 6 months jail (with possible work release) to get child support.  One person currently owes $60,118 in back child support. This can include children in other states etc, so it can add up especially with workers who move a lot.
 
PA is first in country for collection of child support.  There is a child support website to get a hearing.  All payments can be done online. 
 
Our current jail was built in 1986 for 286 cases with no space for women. In 2017, there were 570 criminal cases, so our jail is full. Right now, only 1 person boarded outside Wyo Jail. Numbers are so high because we have great law enforcement in the County.  Super Walmart self-check-out is a big issue for the County now. The County has to deal with gas driller issues, the opioid epidemic, but fortunately, only 2 drug overdoses this year so far. Last year, there were approx. 20 overdoses for the year.  
 
Judge Shurtleff wants to get a Mental Health Court up and running.
 
After the Judge Shurtleff’s presentation, Pres. Mike presented him with a check for $1,500 for the Drug Treatment Court.

Judge Shurtleff receiving a check for Drug Treatment Court from Pres. Mike Markovitz
 
 
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
Dave Whipple
May 2
 
Elaine Walker
May 5
 
Sam Maruzzelli
May 7
 
John Hovan
May 13
 
Matthew Pompey
May 19
 
Rick Miller
May 30
 
Join Date
Norm Werkheiser
May 1, 1976
43 years
 
Pat Ehrenzeller
May 22, 1997
22 years
 
Barbara Grimaud
May 24, 2017
2 years
 
Michael Markovitz
May 30, 2014
5 years
 
Terri Detrick
May 30, 2018
1 year