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Rotary's guest on Monday was Fort Dodge Police Chief Roger Porter, who provided a very good question and Answer session regarding issues of the department. Some overall concepts were:

Roger and his wife are Fort Dodge natives. Roger graduated from FDSH in 1986 and UNI in 1990. He worked at odd jobs before joining the department in 1995 as a patrol officer, and thereafter worked through the system before being named Chief in 2017.
The Department has 40 officers, 2 K-9s, 4 civilian support staff, and 2 school resource officers. The resource officers work with community programs during the summers. The Citizens Academy has been very popular as an 8 week series of meetings at which citizens can be informed on law enforcement and emergency response in the Fort Dodge area. One session per year in the fall will be continued.
The Department attempts to operate 7 individuals per shift, with 5 patrol officers, a Captain, and a Lieutenant.
A fundraiser will begin shortly to secure funding for another K-9.
Yes, speed cameras are important to the funding of the department. Rumor has it that the cameras provide funding for approximately 2 officers, but that is not official.
Internet crime is very prevalent and unfortunately the best defense is knowledge of the basic tricks to deceive people and then to avoid doing them. Once you have been scammed your name will be entered into a national database, but recovery of funds is generally not achieved.
Drugs are a growing problem, especially with Fentanyl, Meth, Synthetic Drugs, and misuse of Prescription Drugs. This problem is growing within the youth community. Each officer now carries a dose of Fentanyl antidote with them at all times.

Picture of Rotarian in the "Messenger"

Posted by David Fierke on Apr 12, 2019

Rotarian David Fierke appeared in the Friday edition of the "Messenger" in a picture of the local officials attending the annual Governmental Trip to Washington D.C. This trip has traditionally brought benefits to the community as potential projects are matched with potential funding sources. Also discussed was a variety of regulatory issues affecting our local industries.

Rotary Supports Youth Exchange to Kosovo

Posted by Stephen Hoesel on Apr 14, 2019

The Fort Dodge Rotary Club has traditionally supported inbound and outbound exchange students through Rotary. The associations made are long lasting and the kids often become family members. However, as the club gets older it is virtually impossible to find the new Rotary requirement of 3 local host families for the nine month period for an inbound student. Also the administrative paperwork has become very time consuming and the club member that did it last time flatly refuses to do it again. Therefore, the potential for an inbound student is virtually nil and none. In the past we have supported outbound students and this year another one or two had been "lined-up" to study abroad. Unfortunately the new rules from Rotary requires a Club who desires to have an outbound student also accept an inbound student. Therefore, your Board of Directors have decided to stay involved with Youth Exchange, but this time by supporting the Sister State/Sister City program with Kosovo, specifically the Camp TOKA program. This program will send four Fort Dodge students to Kosovo for a month long camp with a return visit from Kosovo students later. To this program the Club has provided $500 to the ongoing community fundraiser for expenses. Thus, we maintain some sense of a youth exchange program.

Greg Hora and the Iowa Pork Producers

Posted by Stephen Hoesel on Apr 08, 2019

Greg Hora, Past President of the Iowa Pork Producers was Rotary's guest on Monday. Greg discussed issues of pork production, especially the recently opened Prestige Foods plant approximately 15 miles east of Fort Dodge. As the world increases from 7 to 9 billion mouths to feed by 2050 pork will become increasingly important to the world food supply. Specifically, Iowa is now the world's leading pork producer by population, a role that will play heavily in its future economics. The fragile position of food is further emphasized by the occurrence of an African Swine Fever in the Chinese hog population that has caused the mass slaughter of over 9 million of their 30 million herd count. Depending upon how the Chinese control this outbreak will greatly help determine how much pork will be imported in the future.

Prestige Foods is a family operation that in the recent past purchased the swine operation of the former DeCostser Farms. They are now attempting to maximize their economic value (approximately $55 per head) by incorporating processing with their growing farms. The plant which is slated to utilize 10,000 hogs per day (currently they are operating at 5,000) now employs 700 to 800 of the shift one projection of 1,000. Because of issues with securing labor and housing base wages have increased to approximately $16 per hour with significant benefits, including health benefits. This plant will yield a very significant economic retail boost to the Fort Dodge area of Northcentral Iowa. Also, a large industrial park being constructed south of the facility has preliminary location discussions with at least two support industries. The message in this section is that we have more than enough pigs for the facility, but not enough workers. We also know that workers are being hired from other industries within Iowa because of the greater wage benefits. This ripple effect creates the very important upward movement in society past lacking in the area.

The economic impact to America is also important as more than 30% of the plant's production will be shipped overseas. At the current time, because of the ongoing trade difficulties with China, Canada is supplying China with their pork imports, but America is then back-filling the need for pork in Canada. Politics can make the issues difficult, but can not change the fact that the world needs food. We also see a similar regional trade shift with Soybeans as the U.S. has exported to date as many soybeans as in prior years.

The state of the art facility is very capable of providing multiple packaging of meat according to end user requirements, an advantage older processing plants do not have. Robots and other technology has been incorporated into the process to great success, but also requires significant training for new employees.

Rotary Needs Your Help

Posted by Stephen Hoesel on Apr 14, 2019

Your personal information on the Fort Dodge Rotary Data Base may have become outdated, and it is a simple process to update it. Follow the process outlined below:

Enter the Members Only section of the Rotary web site (If you do not remember your user name or password please let Steve know and he can provide those to you);
In the Members Only section click on the "Edit My Profile" link;
Review the material contained and determine if any changes are needed;
Click on the Edit button to change information;
You can fill in the boxes as you desire - some will provide more information and some will choose to provide less. Rotary International requires us to forward to them your full Name, Mailing Address (where Rotarian Magazine can be sent) birthday, and sex (R.I. uses the birthday and sex information to perform mass analysis of their 1.3 million members from around the world);
Click on the Save button before you exit.

Please note that you an upload a new picture if you do not like the current one. The program should accept .jpeg or .pdf file formats. I have found that .jpeg provides the best transition.

We did not have a presentation today because our speaker from YOUR Inc. Head Start was a no-show for reasons unknown. Therefore we enjoyed wonderful grilled hamburgers and had round-table discussions.

44th Annual Academic Achievement Banquet

Posted by Amy Bruno on Apr 14, 2019

Amy Bruno, program chair has announced that the 44th Annual Academic Achievement Banquet will be held on May 22nd beginning at 5:30 P.M. at the Starlight Best Western in Fort Dodge. This program honors the top 10 percent of the graduating classes of Saint Edmond and Senior High. Amy also requests that you contact her with a willingness to assist with this program. The need is for greeters and individuals to sit with the students and their parents at the various tables.

Invocation Leader for April 22nd is Steve Hoesel

Posted by Teresa Naughton on Apr 15, 2019

The following have volunteered to provide the weekly invocation as our meetings start. If you are unable to make your assigned schedule please contact a substitute that will then check-in with the President prior to the meeting. (Also please note that you can call either Don Woodruff or Janet Secor, who have said they can be a fill-in alternate.)

April 22 - Steve Hoesel

April 29 - Michael Devine

May 6 - Cameron Nelson

May 13 -

May 20 -

May 27 - Memorial Day (No Meeting)

June 3 - Kraig Barber

June 10 - Michael Devine

June 17 -

June 24 -

Minutes and Financial Reports

Posted by Stephen Hoesel on Apr 14, 2019

Minutes and/or Financial Reports for the 2018-2019 Rotary Year have been posted to the members only section of the Website and are available for viewing by accessing the Members Only Section.

The latest addition is from a meeting of the Club at which officers were elected and the regular March Board of Directors Meeting.

Snell-Crawford Master Plan

Posted by Kraig Barber on Jan 01, 2019

Kraig Barber passed around a copy of the latest Master Plan for Snell-Crawford Park. The latest version incorporates some of the suggestions by Rotarians of leaving the road into the interior of the Park. Kraig noted that within the near future the Fort Dodge Parks, Forestry, and Recreation Commission will be reviewing this issue. A picture is included for your knowledge.

Club's Application for Funds for Various Projects

Posted by Stephen Hoesel on Jan 01, 2017

Rotary is a service organization comprised of community leaders of various professions dedicated to humanitarian causes locally and throughout the world. The club budgets funds annually for a variety of local causes that may be made available for requests made throughout the year for which the Board of Directors may want to support. To make application for funds please use the following application format found over two sections of this applet. When completed please scan your application narrative and send to Fort Dodge Rotary, Box 935, Fort Dodge, Iowa 50501 . The first page of the application appears below and the second is found by clicking on the "read more" applet.

please use

Welcome to Fort Dodge Noon Rotary

Service Above Self

Joe Tofilon, President