Today, in the first of our political season presentations, Bill West will introduce Larimer County Referred Issue 1A, a proposal to “construct and operate a treatment and detox”, facility, and moderate a panel discussion both pro and con.

According to a League of Women’s Voters publication, “the average daily population of our county jail is about 465, and it is estimated that at least 20% of those in jail have serious mental health problems, plus those having major alcohol and drug addiction.” Further, “Larimer County has no facility for handling acute mental health crisis among people arrested. Those individuals currently have to be taken to Greeley. In addition, the recidivism rate for inmates with co-occurring substance abuse disorder and mental illness is about 80%”.

Those in favor say, among other things: “1A will delay the expansion of our jail and provide intensive substance abuse treatment that costs taxpayers ¼ the cost of a year in jail.”

Those against say, among other things: “No limits, no accountability for at least $11 million per year for the rest of time.”

Our panel will include Cheryl Olson, Peggy Reeves, Gary Darling and Ernie Tellez.

Peggy Reeves has been a city council member and a state legislator, serving both in the Colorado House and Senate. Peggy currently volunteers on many boards in the Larimer County community. She and her husband Brent have two children and three grandchildren.

Cheryl currently serves as Chair of Steering Committee for the Community Wide Mental Health and Substance Abuse Planning Project and is active in the real estate community through her family’s investment company. Cheryl also served as our Larimer County Commissioner 1997 to 2001. She and her husband Marty have 3 daughters.

Gary Darling is the Criminal Justice Planning Manager for Larimer County. Previously he was with the Larimer County Sheriff's Office for nearly 30 years. He has been the commander of every division of the Larimer County Sheriff's Office at one time or another from 1991 through 2007, eight years of which he was the jail commander. He is on the steering committee for the Community Mental Health/Substance Abuse Partnership. Gary is also on the Advisory Committee for the National Institute of Corrections Evidence Based Decision Making Project developed to reduce recidivism at the local levels.

Earnie Telez has served with the Fort Collins Police Department for 25 years which includes 13 years on SWAT and as a Detective for the Drug Task Force. Born and raised in Fort Collins, he has served on the Multi-Jurisdictional Committee for Mental Health, Detox, Adult Protection, and Transient Management to find ways to help those in need. He has been licensed in Real Estate since 1981 and works for the Group, Inc.

This years’ finalists were Julie Rickett, language arts teacher at Webber Junior High; Melinda Danielson, reading teacher at Lincoln Junior High IB World School; and Nicole Orswell, English teacher at Wellington Junior High. They received plaques and $250 stipends for their schools. See below for all of the teachers who were Teachers of the Month for the three Rotary Clubs and the winners for the last 13 years.

Julie Rickett

Melinda Danielson

Nicole Orswell

Craig Nagel then introduced the Keynote Speaker, Larry Kendall. This was followed by Mike Griffith announcing the winner of the 2008 Teacher of the Year. And the winner was:

Larry’s message was that people who achieve great things probably had a teacher, coach or mentor who saw greatness in them and helped them also see it an achieve it. He gave two examples from the recent Olympics, two examples from CSU, a business leader, a friend, Michael Jordan, a Rotarian and Dr. Randy Pauch. He highly recommended that the audience see Dr. Pauch’s “The Last Lecture”, on U-Tube, entitled, “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” It has been seen by over seven million viewers.

All of the examples he gave exhibited passion in their lives. Larry ended by saying that a life of passion is a life of loving, of laughing, of learning, and of leaving a legacy.

Past Teacher of the Year Award Winners

1995	Carol Ballain	2002	Anita Martinez
1996;	Tyanne Kvehnast	2003	Kelly Webb
1997;	Julie Schiola	2004	Coleen Conrad
1998	Robyn Still	2005	Sue Everett
1999	Linda Hall	2006	Scott DeVries
2000	Tom Tonoli	2007	Stephen Wahlfeldt
2001	Sheryl Haise	2008	Julie Rickett