Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton was our speaker at last week’s meeting.

If you did not make it to our last Rotary Club of Forest Grove meeting, here is what you missed…

This Week – Back At Pacific University: This week, the Rotary Club of Forest Grove moves its meetings back to the Boxer Pause room in the University Center at Pacific University! The room is located in the northeast corner of the building’s main level (go through the dining commons). As we have in past meetings at Pacific, we will take our meals through the main dining commons.

Please join us as our program will be fellow Rotarian and Pacific University President Jenny Coyle.

Thank You Forest Grove UCC: The club wishes to extend a huge thank you to the Forest Grove United Church of Christ, including pastor Brendan Curran, secretary Elena Parker and sexton John Davis, for extending their hospitality to us over the last four months.

Bundt Cake Fundraiser – Deadline Is Tuesday: With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, we are offering a mini-cake fundraiser through Nothing Bundt Cakes in Hillsboro. For this fundraiser, we are offering bundtlets, which are small, individual cakes, for $6.50 each. Proceeds from this fundraiser will help defer some of our meal costs for visitors to the club, such as speakers and prospective members.

All orders are due by this Tuesday, Feb. 6. Cakes will be delivered on Tuesday, Feb. 13 with cakes available at our meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Click Here for cake information and ordering details. For questions, please email Evelyn Orr at e-orr@comcast.net. Thank you, Evelyn, for coordinating this fundraiser for the club!

Crab Feed Committee: Our Crab Feed Committee, chaired by Julia Kollar, is starting to meet to plan this spring’s event. If you are interested in being involved in the planning and execution of this year event, please contact Julia.

The Crab Feed is a social event designed to be a celebration for the club and usually takes place in March. It is also when our club honors its newest Paul Harris Fellows and those who have advanced in Paul Harris Fellow recognition.

Silent Auction At The Crab Feed: At this year’s Crab Feed, we will once again be conducting a silent auction with all proceeds benefitting The Rotary Foundation. The committee is looking again for items such as themed baskets, weekend getaways, gift cards or experiences. In past years, the silent auction has been very successful in helping us meet our club’s annual Rotary Foundation giving goals.

If you would like to make a donation, please contact Parri Van Dyke. Thank you to Parri and Evelyn Orr, who are coordinating the silent auction.

Forest Grove HS Interact Club: Our inbound Youth Exchange student, Fareeha Nayebare, has restarted the Interact Club at Forest Grove High School! Meetings take place on Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m. All Rotarians are welcome. The club is currently preparing for a service project with the high school’s Food Pantry. For questions, please talk with Fareeha at our meetings.

Concours d’Elegance Committee: The Concours d’Elegance Committee is starting the planning for our 50th show on July 21, 2024. If interested in getting further involved with the Concours, the steering committee is always looking for volunteers to prepare for the show throughout the year. For more information, contact Tom Raabe at 503-704-1200 or rotarytomr@gmail.com or Geoff Johnston at 503-939-7868 or gamsma@comcast.net.

The next meeting of the Concours Committee will be on Wednesday, Feb. 14 via Zoom at 7 p.m.

A Note About PMail: When club leadership sends out emails through the DacDB Pmail system (these will usually have ROTARY in the subject line), these are mass emails sent for the purpose of informing the whole club of information. While it may look like the email is addressed specifically to you, it is not. Please keep this in mind when choosing to reply to an email.

The PMail system is the same system we use to send the Rototeller out each week. This means that if you are opting-out of receiving club emails, you will not receive the weekly newsletter either.

Past Programs: Did you miss a meeting or want to go back and check out a program again? Most of our programs since May 2020 (over 100 videos to date) are archived on our club’s YouTube page. Visit https://bit.ly/fgrotaryprograms.

Service Opportunities For Club Members
Do You Know Of Service Opportunities?: Are you aware of service opportunities in our area that our members might be interested in? We can advertise those here! This space is not limited to club-sponsored activities but to any service opportunity in the community. To promote the service activity, please send a detailed description of the project, the date and time, contact information and a link to register to Rototeller editor Blake Timm, blakertimm@gmail.com.

Upcoming Habitat For Humanity Service Project: The club is working with West Tuality Habitat for Humanity for a joint service project in May. We will have more details on this service opportunity soon.

FGHS Community Food Pantry: Our club’s support for the Forest Grove High School Food Pantry continues.  Thanks to its partnership with the Oregon Food Bank, food donations are still welcome but are of less need at this time. Of need, however, are toiletries and hygiene products as well as household cleaning materials.

The Food Pantry is open Mondays from 4-5:30 p.m. The pantry is located along Nichols Lane between the football field and the Basinski Center. Click Here for more information on the FGHS Food Pantry and on other resources for those experiencing food insecurity.

For information on the Food Pantry, please contact Brian Burke, bburke@fgsd.k12.or.us. If you wish to make a cash donation to the pantry, Click Here.

Around District 5100
Registration Now Open For Rotary One Conference: Make your plans now to attend the One Rotary Conference, District 5100’s combined training assembly and annual conference. This year’s conference runs from Friday, April 26 to Sunday, April 28 at the Best Western Hood River Inn in Hood River. This is a wonderful opportunity to not only learn more about Rotary, but to connect with Rotarians from all across the District.

The annual conference includes district training sessions on both Friday and Saturday. Friday evening features a barbeque dinner buffet and the annual Youth Exchange Talent Show, a dinner event on Saturday and the annual awards ceremony and passing of the district governor banner on Sunday.

As our own Jeannine Murrell will be receiving the banner in advance of her district governor year, we would like to see as many members of our club as possible attend the conference to support her!

A link to register for the conference, along with the schedule of events and a link for hotel reservations at the Rotary rate, can be found at This DacDB Link (you must log in to DacDB to access).

District 5100 Newsletter: Click Here To View The Monthly District 5100 Newsletter

Last Week’s Program: Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton

Click Here To View The Complete Program

Last week, we welcomed back Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton to our meeting. Barton last spoke to our club in July 2022 and we were excited to welcome him back as he discussed his office, where crime stands in Washington County and the effects of Ballot Measure 110.

Barton opened the presentation by reminding the club of his office’s mission statement, “Seeking justice & protecting our community.” Their office wants to hold people accountable when crimes are committed, but they also want to rehabilitate those individuals and set them up for future success. They also want the community to know that it is safe and that people feel safe.

Barton noted good news about crime rates in the county. By and large, Washington County is a safe county with a crime rate 30% below the state average and 50% below Multnomah County. He noted that his office and the county has started a Hate Crimes Team designed to investigate hate crimes. The team includes police officers, community members, members of the district attorney’s office and others. The team meets quarterly.

The office also received a federal grant funding for investigating cold cases with a focus on reopening murder and sexual assault cases. Last year, this resulted in the county being able to press charges on a case from the 1980s.

Barton addressed drug use and the effects of Measure 110, which decriminalized drug possession in Oregon. Barton described two stories of crimes where drugs played a major role. He knows that drugs played a role in that crime. Most property crimes these days involve drug addicts. We need to prosecute, he said, but there is also a need to rehabiliate and treat addiction. Barton is part of group working on a ballot measure that would recriminalize drug possession.

Fentanyl is the latest drug of choice. Twenty years ago it was meth and seven years ago it was heroin. Today, Barton said, it is all three and we are seeing the cumulative impact of all of those together. Fentanyl is cheaply produced and usually overseas. It is shipped to the West Coast and is trafficked up the I-5 corridor. It usually starts as a powder and is pressed into pills. The pills sell for less than $1 per pill. It is cheap to transport and sell. It is almost impossible to keep it from coming into the state. Have to look at both supply and demand. If we attack from both perspectives, he said, we can help address the problem.

In terms of Measure 110, Barton said there is lots of conversation about what to do. His opinion is there is a lot of the mesaure that needs to be repealed completely. The one good thing, he believes, was the creation of more funding for drug treatment and recovery. The measure has not delivered on that promise. Barton believes that there is an opportunity to deliver on the funding for treatment, but the decriminalization needs to change.

With the new law, police officers have two options when they encounter a drug user: ignore it or issue a $40 ticket. For those who receive tickets, most simply ignore them rather than seek treatment options. The fine for littering and throwing that ticket on the ground than for the drug use itself. Barton proposes making possession a class A misdemeanor to encourage users to seek treatment. At the same, there needs to be more investment in the infrastructure for drug treatment.

Club Calendar
Wed., Feb. 7: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Jenny Coyle, President of Pacific University

Thurs., Feb. 8: Executive Board Meeting, 7 p.m.
via Zoom

Wed., Feb. 14: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Aiden Rydman, Rotary Youth Exchange

Wed., Feb. 14: Concours Committee Meeting, 7 p.m.
via Zoom

Thurs., Feb. 15: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
via Zoom

Wed., Feb. 21: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Farmer’s Day/Dan Lewis, Northwest Seed Co.