Starke County Indiana Democratic Party

There have been a couple of people who have expressed interest in having their phone share the addressbook and calendar with their email. I will stay after the meeting next week to help get this setup for folks that would like it. If you have an iPhone, Nokia N Series, or Blackberry, and an email account with google or yahoo (MSN is not known to work yet) and you would like to have this set up, Please email me at rjune@oriontechnologysolutions.com what type of phone you have, and I’ll try to make sure it gets setup at the meeting next week.

Thanks again to Jennifer Davis for her lovely write up, and to Cindy Wallace for all the pictures. If any one would like prints from the event, you can order them from the JJ Dinner Picasa Gallery

	Dan Bridegroom
	Joe Donnelly
Nancy Dembowski and Jennifer Davis
	Mark Smith
	Nancy Dembowski
Nancy Dembowski	Nancy Dembowski
Nancy Dembowski
Rick Chambers
Yes, even Obama made an apperance. We couldn't get him here in person though.
Rick Chambers	Jennifer Davis
Joe Donnelly	Nancy Dembowski
	Mark Smith
Rick Chambers
Joe Donnelly
	Roy Dominguez
Chuck Estok	Bill Dulin
Mark Milo

It was an evening of fun and celebration for Starke County Democrats as they gathered together on Saturday, October 24^th for the 2009 Jefferson Jackson Day Dinner.  Candidates for state offices made an appearance asking for support in their quest for upcoming elections in 2010.

Local office holders and other Starke County Democrats were treated to an inspiring speech from 2^nd District Congressman, Joe Donnelly.  Thanking his many supporters in Starke County, Donnelly stressed the importance of supporting President Barack Obama.  “He (President Obama) has inherited a myriad of problems facing our country; credit/banking crisis, a war, economic woes that have not been  so critical since the depression, and a health care costs leaving millions of Americans without health care coverage…. only together can we resolve these issues,” Donnelly said.

Kenny Wallace, Chairman of the Starke County Democrat Party recognized Mrs. Sara Wright for her 50+ years of service with the Democrat Party.  Mrs. Wright has volunteered as a precinct person, poll worker, Central Committee officer along with many other activities in the Party.

On a lighter note, the crowd was entertained with a friendly “roast” of State Representative Nancy Dembowski.  Mike Lintner, CEO for Marshall Starke Development Center, sang a ballad to Representative Dembowski, crooning  that Starke County’s gain has caused Nancy  pain but her devotion to service  has made Republicans nervous.”  Other roasters included:  Judge Marvin McLaughilin,  Mark Smith, Linda Berndt, Becky Czarnecki, Jennifer Davis and Marcia Hayes.

Wallace was pleased with the evening’s activities.  “It was a fun evening for everyone.  I appreciate all of the work the committee did to make this  so successful.”  An auction capped off the evening raising more than $2,000 for the treasury.

Note: I’m still uploading pictures, I’ll post again when I have all of them uploaded. In the meantime, please enjoy the pictures from the Starke County JJ Dinner I have uploaded.

New phone system for Starke County to include Annex, Courthouse, Sheriff’s Department, Prosecutors Office and Highway Department was approved Monday night October 19, 2009 and is waiting for in installation which should be within the next 6 weeks.

The system is predicted to save the county approximately $2,000 per month on their current phone bill or approximately $120,000 over a 5 year period.

The cost $81,476 will be paid from a loan secured from Demotte State Bank in Knox in 4 annual installments at the rate of 3.9% with no fees for the loan.

The Starke County Council opted to borrow the money to keep cash in the Cumulative Capital Fund for emergency and building maintenance cost.

The JJ Dinner is this Saturday on October 24. It will be at the Knox community center, starting at 6PM.

First up is Happy Hour from 6PM to 7PM, followed by a rib dinner. After that is a roast of Nancy Dembowski and Joe Donnelly. Then a fundraiser auction wraps up the evening. If you have further questions or would like to purchase tickets, please contact Kenny Wallace at (574) 772 – 4900.

Additionally, I am unable to attend. If anyone can take some pictures or write a little bit about the event, please contact me, Richard June <starkedemocrats@gmail.com>

The Starke county council met last night. They worked out terms to purchase a new phone system, as well as created a rainy day fund. The coroner and judge needed some additional funds to continue through to the end of the year.

The monthly meeting of the Starke County Democrat Central Committe was held September 10, 2009 at the VFW in Knox. The meeting was called to order at 7:01pm by Chairman Kenny Wallace and followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by all.

Roll call was taken with ten precinct committe persons present, which did not meet the required number for a quorum for the meeting.

In the absence of Sherly Field, Donna DeRuntz red the meeting minutes from the August 6th meeting.

Cherly Ferch gave an updated financial statement. We currently have $1898.78 in the treasury.

The following represented the discussion for the meeting:

• Donkey Bingo, held August 15th at Koontz Lake, was a great success. Bev Fraine, Chair, thanked the Committee for their hard work. It was suggested we hold another one or more, but move them around the county.
• Kenny Wallace thanked everyone for their hard work at the Harvest Festival. Ken also complemented Linda Berndt on her hard work coordinating the staffing of the booth.
• Kenny reminded all of the pancake Breakfast scheduled for September 27, Jennifer asked for volunteers for the breakfast and distributed tickets to sell.
• Kenny shared that Farm Bureau has a training seminar on running a campaign available on November 5th and 6th in Indianapolis. If anyone is interested or wants more details, see Kenny.
• Kenny shared the following JJ dinner dates: Marshall County on October 4th in Lakeville and LaPorte County will be in Michigan City at the Blue Chip on October 2. Discussion then turned to the Starke County JJ Dinner to be held on October 24 in Knox at the Community Center.
• The Indiana State Democratic Part Patron was discussed again. Kenny relayed hw important it is to have as many participants as possible since the county chapters receive part of the contributions.
• Discussion then turned to precinct chairs and participation. Janice Janson has replaced Keyo Ikeda. It was suggested that a card be sent to Keyo thanking her for her contributions over the years. In the matter of precinct chairs not attending the meetings, Kenny and Nancy Dembowski will visit the chairs to address the issue and determine their interest in continuing in their position.
• We welcomed first time attendee, Richard June
• Lisa Minix announced she will be running for Recorder.
• Rick Chambers won the 50/50 and donated his share of the $79.00 back to the party.
• The next meeting of the Starke County Democrat Central Committee will be held on October 8, 2009 at 7:00PM at the VFW in Knox.

There being no further business or discussion, the meeting was adjourned.

Just a reminder that the monthly meeting is this Thursday starting at 7PM and should last around an hour.

The JJ Dinner is three short weeks away on October 24. It will be at the Knox community center, starting at 6PM.

First up is Happy Hour from 6PM to 7PM, followed by a rib dinner. After that is a roast of Nancy Dembowski and Joe Donnelly. Then a fundraiser auction wraps up the evening. If you have further questions or would like to purchase tickets, please contact Kenny Wallace at (574) 772 – 4900.

The pancake breakfast went well, we had lots of people stop by to get some pancakes and sausage. Pictures from the event are available at Picasa. Thanks to everybody that volunteered to help make the food, clean up and organize the event. All in all we raised quite a bit.

Dan brought a special tool to insure light and fluffy pancakes	Just starting a batch of twenty or so pancakes
We used a fancy machine to help cook pancakes	I cooked sausage all morning on this skillet
The kitchen committee decides resource allocation	Our first customers weren't really customers
People start to drift in	Traffic ebbed and flowed all morning
Eye see you!	Can you find all the politicians in this picture?
The whole family came out	A slow time starting to pick up.