Ashland Optimist Bulletin May 2 2026
Breakfast: May 9- John Travlos and Bern Bonderer
Program- Chase Thomas- 2026 Cattlemen's Day Rodeo
Our Bike Safety event is scheduled for May 23rd, with Leigh Kottwitz and Charlie Salbach leading. Please let one of them know if you are interested in helping. Tara and Will Blue will be leading the Fishing Derby, with support from Dorise Slinker, on June 20th. Please contact them if you can help.
We hosted Bingo on Friday night with 130 players. Thanks to Lester Gilpin, Shaun Steelman, Bryan Chapman, and Shyla Barnett who sold event tickets, including a $1,000 horse race, which allowed us to deposit over $2,000 from them. New members Glenda Richardson and Jason Hollandsworth helped in the kitchen to cover several people who were missing, and we were able to deposit over $900. We look forward to their help in the future as we rebuild Team One.
Leigh Kottwitz, Chris Felmlee, and Loren Plank provided an amazing breakfast this morning and Michael Dwyer, who recently moved from Nebraska to help run Emellar Stables, came to visit. His wife has been coming to our Bingo and is encouraging him to join our club.
Ernie and Danna Wren originally were scheduled to attend the Third Quarter Missouri Optimist Eastern District Conference and Oratorical Contest this weekend in St. Louis, but between Ernie's mom having a stroke and him dealing with a viral infection, they didn't make it so Bernie Bartel had to run the meeting this morning. John Travlos was able to bring our Oratorical contestants to the Conference and will hopefully give us an update next Saturday. Our local winner, Gannon Seyer, will be sharing his speech on May 16th.
Long time member, Jan Palmer, has been involved in a couple of car accidents recently and no longer can drive. Her daughter, Reanna, recently moved home while Jan was dealing with health issues. Keep them in your thoughts as they deal with this transition.
Our speaker this morning was John Martin, State Representative for Missouri District 44, who is a member of our club. He was here to speak about what has been happening in Jefferson City, since they only have two weeks left in the current session. Currently, their focus is the State budget, which has a deadline of this coming Friday. It is still in negotiation between the House and the Senate. He also shared some items that the Governor has already signed, including a large public safety bill that should help with crime and provide truth in sentencing. Part of this bill affects juveniles. John has sponsored an Elementary Agriculture Education bill that looks promising. It would allow schools statewide to provide curriculum for agriculture education in elementary schools.
John followed that with information about House Joint Resolutions 173 & 174, which passed two weeks ago and will go to the election ballot in August or November to phase-out individual income tax and make up the difference by increasing the sales tax. Nine states already do not have individual income tax, and this was one of the issues that the Governor campaigned on in 2024. John's claim is that states without individual income tax have been outpacing and outgrowing Missouri's economy, which he admitted has been stable with some growth because of current reductions in income tax that our state has already done. There are challenges, but John hopes that this will bring us closer to a fair tax, which John and the Department of Revenue see coming from sales tax. He shared information that I will bring to the next few meetings for anyone who missed seeing it this morning.
Once John was finished speaking, he drew for the Attendance drawing. Donna Wobbe, Carole Iles, and Amy Robinett had their chance at riches, but with their absence, the pot will continue to grow.
Letitia DenHartog
ashlandoptimist.org
