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January 16, 2007 No. 15 Vol. 85
Today’s Program: Gary Vickers – Pinellas County Emergency Management
Our speaker today is a second generation native Floridian and was
born and raised in Indian River County. He moved to Pinellas County in
1975 to pursue a career in public safety services.
Gary began his career in the public safety sector in 1975 as an
Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)/Driver for a local ambulance company.
He progressed from being a First Responder to Ambulance Communications
Center Manager and later moved from the private sector into local
government as a Police Fire EMS Communications Center Supervisor for the
City of Largo.
Gary transitioned to Pinellas County Government in 1986 as a 911
Supervisor. In 1988 he became a Hazardous Materials Specialist, was
promoted to Emergency Management Coordinator in 1990 and Senior
Coordinator in 2000. In December of 2002 Gary was recommended by the
County Administrator to be the new Director of Emergency Management. The
Board of County Commissioners confirmed his appointment effective
December 29, 2002.
In the nearly 30 years that Gary has been involved in public safety
services in Pinellas County, he has participated in numerous disaster
response and recovery operations. His experience includes Hurricane
Elena (1985), Countywide Flooding (1988), Tropical Storm Keith (1988),
Tornado Outbreak (1992), Hurricane Andrew (1992), Storm of the Century
(1993), Tanker Collision/Oil Spill (1993), Tropical Storm Josephine
(1996), Florida Wildfires (1998), Hurricane Georges (1998), Y2K
Transition (1999), Hurricane Gordon (2000), Tropical Storm Gabrielle
(2001), and Hurricane Charlie, Hurricane Frances, Hurricane Ivan, and
Hurricane Jeanne (2004).
Gary is an active member of many boards and associations. He has
three children and currently resides in the City of Clearwater.
Welcome, Gary! We feel safer just having you here.
Last Week at Kiwanis
Kiwanian-of-the-Day Paul Renker gave Marcia K. Crawley,
Pinellas County’s Director of Communications, a warm introduction,
citing her many accomplishments and current area of emphasis, the
campaign for the Penny for Pinellas.
In her remarks and during a video, we were made aware of the many
projects throughout our county which have been funded by the one cent
sales tax since 1990. The Bayside Bridge was one of the projects made
possible by the penny tax as were improvements to parks, recreation
centers, preserves and the Pinellas Trail. Ms. Crawley explained that
without the tax, many much-needed and popularly-supported improvements
will not be able to go forward, impeding traffic flow, decreasing public
safety and preparedness and hindering efforts to circumvent flooding.
Stressing that the only other source of funding for those projects would
place an additional burden on property owners through increased property
taxes, Ms. Crawley explained that tourists provide 1/3 of the penny tax
funding and that all communities within Pinellas County, including the
beaches, stand to gain from its renewal. In its first ten years, the
penny tax made $1.4 billion available for capital projects and
projections are that over the next ten years, billions more will be
raised for issues affecting public health, safety and recreation.
Points to remember include that the Penny for Pinellas...
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is not a new tax – it’s a renewal of
an existing tax in effect since 1990
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adds values to our county by funding
roads, bridges, parks, drainage and other capital improvement
projects
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allows us to fund new capital projects
without relying on property taxes
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is paid by all who spend money in the
county, including tourists and other visitors who contribute about a
third
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gets divided between the county and
the cities
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can only be used for capital
improvement projects
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is not collected on groceries and
medications.
If you’d like more information, go to
www.pinellascounty.org/penny. The vote will take place on March 13,
2007.
New Member Speech
New member Jeff Francis gave his three-minute speech to
introduce himself to the Club. Past President of the Midtown Club, Jeff
has spent his life primarily in promotions. He now does real estate and
has an antique car museum. An avid traveler, Jeff has visited 117
countries and is currently a member of the Extra Miler Club, the goal of
which is to travel to every county in the U.S. Jeff has personally
visited all 159 counties in Georgia. He is active in Boy Scouts and
with the Heart Association. We hope we’ll continue to see him in
between his county-hopping!
Boys and Girls Committee Reviews Proposals
Members of the Boys and Girls Committee met last Tuesday to review
grant proposals from area nonprofits serving children. Co-chair Bill
Allard and members Bob Byelick, Grant Wallin, Nick
Gizzarelli, Jr. and Cynthia McGowan chose more than a dozen
organizations among which to allocate $20,000 and then passed their
recommendations along to the board. Upon approval, the organizations
and award amounts will be announced at a future meeting.
Guests and Visitors
Harry Benjamin joined us for lunch from Birmingham, AL. Jim Bastow
was introduced by Frank Ranieri and Stacy Storr was the guest of
Angie Boswell. Nicole Thomas attended her first Kiwanis luncheon
as the guest of Cynthia McGowan and Paula Lopez was the guest of
our absent president, Mitch Cochran. Our speaker, Marcia Crawley,
introduced her guest, Neil Neeson, a colleague of hers from the Pinellas
County Communications Department.
What’s Happening?
January 20th is Division 13 Kiwanis Education Day at
Eckerd College
Don’t forget -- Division 13 Kiwanis Education Day at Eckerd College
takes place from 8:30 a.m. till 1:30 p.m. this Saturday. Interested
members can speak with President Mitch, Guy Van Middlesworth or
Mike Humlicek, co-chairs of the Membership Committee, for more
information.
A Veritable Who’s Who
Don’t know one member from another? Get your Membership Directory
from Al Karnavicius and learn how to connect with all fellow
Kiwanians in our Club.
January Fun Fact
The first Miss January in Playboy magazine was
Playmate
Margie Harrison
appearing in the second issue of Playboy in January 1954.
TODAY’S QUIZ
1. The League of Nations was established in January of which
year?
2. Which four states in the U.S. do not allow billboards?
3. What was Babar the Elephant's wife’s name?
4. In January of which year did Prohibition in the United
States take effect?
PRAYER OF THE DAY
God, heal our wounded hearts. Grant us the courage to change our
hearts. Let Peace live in our hearts.
Fill us with compassion for those suffering in war. Help us care for
those in war. Help us bring Peace to those in war.
Help us stop wars. Help soldiers stop wars. Help leaders stop wars.
Fill us with Peace and Justice. Help us to work for Peace with Justice.
Let there be Peace with Justice among all peoples. Amen.
LAST WEEK’S QUIZ:
- On average, right-handed people live
nine years longer than left-handed people.
- There are 17 types of penguins. Some of the most common are the
Emperor penguin, the Gentoo, the Adelie, the Chinstrap, the
Rockhopper and the Little Blue.
- The Hundred Years War is a term given to a period of regular
fighting between England and France in the time period 1337 to 1453,
so the Hundred Year War is considered to have lasted about 116
years.
- On
November 2,
1983,
President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to
honor Martin Luther King, Jr. It was observed for the first time on
January 20,
1986.
On
January 17,
2000,
for the first time, Martin Luther King Day was officially observed
in all 50
U.S. states.
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