The August 18th Lake Murray – Irmo Rotary Club meeting was started with an invocation by John Adair and the customary Pledge of Allegiance. Health and Happiness was lead by Lyman Whitehead including many Happy Dollars, Group Announcements and Dr. Robinson’s discussion of the Rotary Magazine.
President Judy Johnson introduced Mr. Dan Hennigman who is a Honorary Lexington County Sheriff and is very involved with the Lexington County Shrriff’s Department as well as several other important community organizations to include the Lexington Rotary Club, Honor Flight and the National Safety Council. Mr. Hennigan then introduced the day’s main speaker Lexington County’s Sherriff James Metts.
Sheriff Metts was the nation’s youngest elected sheriff at age 25 in 1972 and has been in office ever since. Sheriff Metts holds a degree in Criminal Justice and a Doctorate Degree in Education. He stated that his main focus for his office is Quality of Life and Customer service for the members of the Lexington County community. Sheriff Metts is an active Rotarian with the Lexington club. He stated that Quality of Life is a big draw for people coming to Lexington County; it has the number One schools, number One recreational opportunities, superior communities and the people of the county are incredible. However, it is not like that everywhere. Within a few miles of his area of jurisdiction are communities that are unsafe, filled with drugs and quickly deteriorating. Sherriff Metts promised that “that will not happen with me in charge of law enforcement if Lexington County! Law enforcement has been vested with the responsibility to maintain the high quality of living that citizens of the county enjoy and he and his department will work to maintain this quality of living in all of Lexington County’s communities.”
He will accomplish this maintenance through superior Customer Service for the citizens of Lexington. He encourages the citizens to become involved with the Sheriff’s Department to help maintain our quality of life and let undesirable characters know that they are not welcomed in our county. One way this involvement can be done is through the Reserve Deputy Program in Lexington County. This program used unpaid volunteers to work with the sheriff’s department alongside the staff. So far in 2010 the Reserve Deputy Program has handles over 6,000 cases and saved the county taxpayers countless dollars.
Sheriff Metts went on to introduce his Quality of Life Team members present. First was the Captain and new Region Commander for the North Region which includes Irmo, Chapin, Cayce and West Columbia - Captain Lee Marshall. Captain Marshall has been an involved member of our community since attending Irmo Elementary, Middle and High Schools. He reminded our own Jack Terrell how at age 13 Captain Marshall worked the time clock at the Seven Oaks Recreation Center with Mr. Terrell as his boss. Captain Marshall has been newly assigned to his current position in command of over 50 employees after serving for several years throughout the Sheriff’s Department in many positions. Captain Marshall added that he sees the desire for maintaining the Quality of Life throughout his department and it cannot be accomplished without community involvement. He sees his main focus and responsibility as a problem solver in our community and if we need to reach him with a problem his phone number is (803) 407-8437.
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