May 14, 2008

The weekly meeting of our club on May 7 got off to a happy start when it was announced that our very own Frank "Pete" Hempstead had received the prestigious "Commitment to Service Award" at the annual Rotary District Conference.  At the conference, this year held in Owego, District Governor Dave Reynolds presented the award and plaque to Pete in recognition of his more than 25 years of service to Rotary.  The Deposit Rotarians gave their share of proud dollars this week on behalf of Pete, especially after he spoke to us movingly and humbly about his pride and encouragement that the contributions of someone from our very own hometown would be noticed and recognized by the Rotary organization.  I think we all felt very proud of Pete, our club, and the work that Rotary does in general.  Congratulations, Pete!

 

Club president Harry Dilello also announced that at the District Conference, the Deposit Rotary Club was awarded a Rotary Shares Presidential Citation for bringing in several new members this year.  Despite our club's small size compared to other clubs across the district, we welcomed four new members just this year.

 

Another great piece of news is that the final results from the Feinstein Challenge during the months of March and April are in!  Organizer and Rotarian Sue Elinsky was happy to announce that $16,268 was raised on behalf of the Deposit Food Pantry.  A huge thank you goes out to Sue for her hard work and to everyone who donated cash, food, or time to the Deposit Food Pantry.  Everyone should be very proud!

 

The program of the day was a presentation of the 2008-2009 budget by our Superintendent of Schools Bonnie Hauber.  She announced that the district was very happy to say that there would be only a 2.91% tax levy, which is the lowest levy we have seen in recent years.  During the presentation, she was asked why the budget needs to increase when it appears that we have a declining student enrollment.  She responded that even if the district loses students—right now we have an enrollment of around 690 students—many of the district's expenses remain the same.  For example, utility bills remain the same no matter how many students are in the building and the number of teachers in each subject area and grade level can't be decreased because every subject and grade level needs to be offered.  Ms. Hauber also included some interesting information such as the fact that out of the 15 districts in our BOCES, 11 of those districts had spending increases higher than ours in Deposit.  She also reminded everyone that the budget vote will held from 1-8pm on Tuesday, May 20 at the high school.  Voters will be considering the budget, the Board of Education, the purchase of 2 school buses, and the establishment of a capital reserve fund, which is like a savings account with a particular purpose in mind. 

 

Thanks for reading! I will have more news next week and don't forget that you can read my past columns and offer comments on our Rotary blog!