Our Fishing Clinic will be held at the Ashland City Park on Sept. 22 from 9:00-12:00. A sign-up sheet is on the kitchen door at the Optimist building or you can contact Janet Popejoy at the corrected email popejoyjl@gmail.com (I had the wrong email before) or call her at 823-9927 to sign up to help. We need people right after our Breakfast meeting to help bring supplies over to the park, people to help the children fish and record their catch, plus people to help move tables back afterward. The Missouri Dept. of Conservation will stock the pond and provide fishing rods. At this point, the forecast is calling for a beautiful day in the 70s, so come support the kids and our Optimist club.
We will be holding our annual installation of officers' social on Sunday, Sept. 30th at the Optimist building starting at 6:30 p.m. It will be catered by Claysville Store. Please get this on your calendar! The Board has set the price at $5.00 per person and we need people to preregister with Barrett as soon as possible so that we have enough food ordered.
There was an Optimist Board meeting on Thursday night. Currently we did not receive financial information since the previous treasurer (Brandon Glascock) and the new treasurer (Eric Barmann) are still transitioning the records. The Board decided to only charge $5.00 per person attending the Installation Social on Sep. 30th in honor of all the work that so many of the members contribute. The Club will pay the balance. The Board also voted to cover up to $50 for supplies for the upcoming Respect for Law presentation and to accept John Dougan as a new member, pending payment of his dues. Ernie gave a report for the pool and it was decided that we would turn in a request to the Park Board for assistance with the past year's pool costs, plus a request for assistance for capital improvements for next year. These funds would come out of the monies raised by the Park Tax that was voted in this year. Barrett also shared several communications he received. Since there were no candidates from Southern Boone for Boy's State this year, our club sponsored Jack Maddox, who is a Rock Bridge High School student. He sent a very nice thank you note and hopefully will come present a program at a later date. Barrett also received thank you cards from Ashton Glascock and Alex Clarke. They are both fifth year students whose scholarship have been extended to allow them to finish their studies.
A wonderful breakfast was provided this morning by Cindy Gunter, Chris Felmlee, and Barrett Glascock. I'm glad that Chris and Cindy had Garrett's help since Barrett was a little distracted, after gaining two beautiful granddaughters yesterday. Everyone is doing well, but I believe that Barrett is a little thrilled and a lot relieved that everything went well.
Janet Popejoy led the meeting this morning, since King Bill had to work. She was also our program when the previously planned speaker wasn't available. Thank you Janet, for covering for so many others!
Janet works for a subsidiary company that reads meters as a back-up when Ameren UE's normal meter systems don't work. Her area stretches from Vienna to Washington, Herman almost to Eldon. There are days that she drives over 500 miles and many people question when she says she's a meter reader. She told us about the nice people who give her candy and about the dog that attacked her. She told us about the man who is building a castle in Missouri of re-purposed parts of old building and about the discontinued lock and dam on the Osage River. She frequently posts pictures on of the beauty and oddities she runs into driving around the state, as well as the cows that she sometimes must drive past to do her job. She spoke about the wrecked train that is still beside the rails and the 150-mph speed sign a lady has posted in Centertown. She made sure to tell us that it is the best job she has ever had!
When she was finished speaking, Garrett drew for the Attendance drawing and Louise won on the first draw, then turned around and donated her winnings to Ernie Wren's ongoing bike project.