In this photo are Rotarian Annette Beaton with her guest speaker Sheriff Darrell Crandall. Crandall shared the history of his career with the Sheriff’s Department in Houlton beginning with growing up in the jail. The house in the front of the jail was his family’s residence until he was nine years old since his father was the Sheriff and paid so little that housing was provided. The family moved out when a raise came and nine and one half years later Crandall returned to work in the jail. He advanced through the years to the job of Sheriff spending time in drug enforcement and dog handling. Crandall shared some statistics of the department’s work over the years. Crandall has made some changes to improve the department’s rating with programs that improve the prisoner’s lives for the time when they leave the jail. The Houlton jail has inmates that are there less than a year. Longer sentences are served elsewhere. Basic life skills such as making the bed in the morning, dressing for the day, brushing teeth and combing hair and eating well are taught as well as job skills and education. Crandall hopes to make better citizens of the inmates that serve time in the Houlton jail. Crandall will be retiring from his work in the next few months and was commended for his thirty years of service with a round of applause by the club members.
In this photo are Literacy Coach Janet Murikami of Houlton Elementary School, Superintendent and Rotarian Ellen Holliday, Rotarian and Volunteer Reader Paul Callnan, Rotarian and Club Literacy Team leader Tracy Rockwell, First Lady of Maine Ann LePage, Rotarian and Volunteer Reader Craig Bean, Department of Education Literacy Specialist LeeAnn Larsen, Rotarian and Literacy Team leader Linda Faucher, Rotarian Jane Torres and Rotarian and Literacy Team leader Otis Smith. Larsen and LePage each spoke to their efforts in advocating for literacy in Maine and shared some of their experiences. They highly complemented the Houlton Rotary Club’s work on Literacy in the area.
Coming up next Monday February 12, 2018 the Governor’s wife Ann LePage will visit the Houlton Rotary Club. Her topic will be the Read to Me program.
In this photo are Rotarian Mac Randolph with his guest speaker Tim McAfee of Pioneer Broadband. McAfee shared his view of the potential disaster the repeal of the current Net Neutrality laws would mean for consumers and small businesses like Pioneer Broadband. Terms like No Blocking, No Throttling, and No Paid Prioritization were used to describe the best parts of Net Neutrality. These would be taken away by a repeal of the current law by Congress and the FCC. Justice Scalia’s pizzeria analogy made sense of an abstract topic. If the pizzeria does not provide delivery, who pays for the delivery and the content? A partisan issue of content versus delivery is on the table and this could affect our freedom of speech and entrepreneurship in this country. Revenue streams based on content delivery have huge potential and the price would be paid by the consumer. Briefly McAfee claims the repeal of the law would be scary for small business and bad for the consumer.
Left to right in the photo are Houlton Rotary club President Matthew Nightingale, Erica Fitzpatrick Peabody of Fitzpatrick/Peabody Farm and Rotarian Fred Grant. Peabody shared her new work on the farm and the efforts she and her father Francis are taking to improve soil quality and potato storage improvements. Peabody is married to Barrett Peabody and they have three children. Peabody has an undergraduate degree in horticulture and a master’s degree in plant pathology. She worked at McCain’s for a dozen years as a n agronomist before joining her father on the family farm this year.
Here are President of the Houlton Rotary Club Matthew Nightingale, Rotarian Frank Nataluk from the Salvation Army and Natatluk’s wife Melissa Lowell. Natatluk is holding forth the generous donation from the Rotary club to help with his work at Salvation Army.
In this photo are Houlton Rotarian Steven Fitzpatrick with his guest speaker of the Presque Isle Rotary Club Dr. Raymond Rice. Rice is the President and Provost of UMPI and he updated the club on all that is new with the university and the statistics the college is facing and solving such as enrollment and costs for students. The latest news is that an Agricultural Studies Program has just emerged for the one hundred plus year old institution. Also his Finish in Four program has been well received to encourage students to complete their degrees in four years with lots of support from the university.
New member Janice Lovely was inducted by Leigh Cummings at the December 11, 2017 meeting. Here she is with her sponsor Houlton Rotary President Matthew Nighingale. Lovely manages Livingston International on Broadway Street in Houlton that has institutional services, estate planning and short term planning. Lovely is also a member of the McGill’s Community Band and encouraged Matt to get involved with the band last summer after not playing in a band for about twenty years.
In this photo from left to right new members Mark Sperrey, Carlie Woodworth and Ellen McAfee with President of the club Matthew Nightingale.
Sperrey’s father was a Rotarian in Washburn. Sperrey has lived in the Houlton area for 10 years and is pleased to have time to be a Rotarian. He runs his own private investigating business where he helps people who need assistance. Sperrey has his 3rd degree black belt.
Woodworth joined her boss Max Lynds one day at a Rotary meeting and asked to be a member. She has moved up in FA Peabody as a Life and Health producer in Lynds’s department. She loves Rotary and meeting people and being involved in community projects. She can be called the Crazy Cat Lady as she had 4 cats.
McAfee grew up in Hodgdon where her family still lives and she loves the 4 seasons of the area. Her membership was sponsored by Nate Bodenstab who she met while working on a committee at SADC. She works at the Sales Department of Pioneer Broadband.
Here is this photo are new Rotarian Chris Carmichael with his sponsor Meg York. Chris works at York’s of Houlton and is pleased about becoming a Rotarian.