Pledge/Prayer: Gerri Lewis
Brents Card Game Winner: Bob Antoniac
Sergeants Report: Keith Wescovich
Raffle Winners: Matt Rubin, Pete Corbett, Matt Vogt
Happy Bucks
Announcements:
Charlie Norz: Reported that all the dictionaries have been distributed thus ending another successful Dictionary Project. Charlie thanked the following people for helping distribute the dictionaries: Andy Anderson, Bill Burnhart, Lee David, Chris Henry, Joan Michaud, Ken Roche, Tom Cloutier, Pete Corbett, Donna Lash, Al Lindquist, Bill McLaughlin, Mike Velgouse, & Matt Vogt
Bob Hester: Next Wednesday the 22nd, volunteers are needed to pick up and deliver compost at the vegetable garden behind Greace Church. Anyone with a pickup truck would be needed. The vegetable garden produced hundreds of pounds of vegetables which are distributed to the area people in need. Over 100 volunteers help tend the garden including the spreading of the compost. Among the volunteers are sailors based in the area.
Peter Manley: The Interact Club of Old Lyme High School recently helped with the beautification project at the OL Post Office with the Duck River Garden Club who organized and planned the project. Peter showed pictures. The OS Rotary Club donated funds for this as well.
Marty: Marty passed out fliers for the Wine Tasting and asked that club members distribute them to area businesses and use them to help sell tickets and solicit donations for the silent auction. Forms are available online for merchant items, merchant solicitation letters and merchant thank you letters.
Gerri: Gerri announced our evening meeting to be held at our usual location on Oct. 29. JAMS will be catering it and its BYOB. More on this later - there will be a sign-up sheet. Marty added that the program is www.osrotary.org in which our web host, Web Designs, will put on a live demonstration showing our website and what a great tool it is.
Program: 
Gerri introduced our speaker, Noel Bishop, First Selectman of the Town of Westbrook. Noel Bishop was elected Westbrook's First Selectman in June of 2007. Mr. Bishop began by acknowledging that a Rotary program 40 years ago made a big impact on his life working in Istanbul, Turkey under the program.
Like all towns, Westbrook has been impacted by the economic downturn. Many programs that were formerly administered by the state or federal government are now left to the towns. Fuel assistance is one example. With the state's $80 million surplus disappearing, so did much of the state's help in fuel assistance.
To save money and gain efficiencies, regionalization of services has been a topic. With towns being forced to provide more and more services, regionalization and sharing of services with neighboring towns may be the answer.
The issue of our young people leaving due to the lack of affordable housing is also a problem facing our area. From 1990-2004, 30% of our college graduates left Connecticut because they couldn't find jobs here. With the exodus of our young people, the volunteer pool (firemen, ambulance personnel, etc.) is decreasing. Many programs are run by unpaid volunteer organizations.
State mandates seem to be on the rise however they are often either underfunded or not funded at all. Some of these mandates are good but they add more burdens to the towns.
Mr. Bishop does a lot of listening to his constituancy in order to get direction on issues. He is of the mindset that the people know best. 16% of the Westbrook budget is bonded debt but fortunately, there is no need for any new buildings and major expenditures. Mr. Bishop stated that now more than ever, government must work with civic organizations like Rotary and offered that our 4-Way Test is an excellent guide for municipal governments to follow. He ended his talk with the following quote, "If you don't turn on to politics, politics will turn on you".
Questions and answers followed.
md
