Mr. Klopsch said that he attended a ceremony to welcome a KC-135R Stratotanker to the Museum of the United States Air Force last Saturday. Four-star Air Force General Arnold W. Bunch spoke at the ceremony. The KC-135R was built in 1961 and was designed to provide aerial refueling support to other aircrafts. There were three gentlemen who flew the aircraft off the coast of Vietnam in 1967 and performed the unprecedented triple aerial refueling operation. Mr. Klopsch commented that the Air Force Museum is an ever evolving and expanding local treasure.

Mr. Klopsch closed his comments by sharing that he had the honor and privilege of recognizing two wonderful people at the Oakwood Rotary Club meeting last Friday. The Oakwood Rotary Club presented the Civic Leadership Award to Mrs. Harrison Gowdy for her commitment to voluntary public service. Mrs. Gowdy has served as a citizen volunteer on the Budget Review Committee; the Oakwood Planning Commission; Oakwood Comprehensive Planning Committee; and the Oakwood Martin Luther King Breakfast committee. She has also been an active member of the Oakwood Historical Society. The Oakwood Rotary Club Community Service Award was presented to Captain Mike Jones who distinguished himself by his contribution to the Oakwood community. Captain Mike Jones started his career with the city of Oakwood in December 1998 as a Public Safety Officer. He came to Oakwood following service with the West Milton Police Department and the Miami Township Fire Department. In 2001, Mike was assigned to the detective section and served as Oakwood's primary investigator for six years. During that time, Mike was involved with and successfully solved many criminal cases. Mike was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 2007 where he served both as the training lieutenant and as a crew lieutenant. In April 2011, Mike was promoted to the rank of Captain and served as the Operations Captain for the majority of the past decade. Mike was second in charge of the department since Alan Hill became the Chief in late 2017. The Oakwood Rotary Club will donate $350 to The Oakwood Historical Society in Mrs. Gowdy's name and $350 to The Food Bank, Inc. in Captain Jones' name.

Councilmember Turben encouraged everyone to attend an unveiling ceremony of Oakwood's first historical marker at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 14 in front of the Oakwood City Building, 30 Park Avenue. There will be festivities such as free docent-led historical walking tours following the ceremony.

Vice Mayor Byington shared that in lieu of having a birthday party for his wife this past weekend, they had the honor of volunteering with the RETREET program. Along with 80 other volunteers, they planted a total of 156 trees in the Trotwood/Clayton area to replace larger trees that were lost during the tornados that struck in 2019. He reminded everyone of “That Day in May” on Saturday, May 21. He said there is a full slate of activities which includes: the pancake breakfast, 5K and 10K runs, annual parade down Shafor Boulevard, afternoon games and rides, and a dunk booth. Vice Mayor Byington encouraged citizens to attend “That Day in May.”

Mayor Duncan said that he has mentioned on many different occasions that Oakwood has the best public safety department. One of the reasons is because of Captain Mike Jones. Mayor Duncan read the quote from Chief Hill that was printed in this week's Oakwood Register because he feels the comments epitomize the man Captain Jones is and the service he gave to the community:

“The connections that he has and the relationships that he has with the community have been invaluable to this organization,” said Hill. “Over the last decade I've personally witnessed a lot of people call Mike Jones, not the Oakwood Public Safety Department. For somebody in law enforcement to have that type of relationship, not with an assigned beat, but to have that with the entire community, is very impressive. It goes back to the fact that Mike is somebody who has lived in this community for 47 years. He was raised here, he grew up here, his friends are here, his friends that moved away and went to college are back and they're now raising their families here. He knows all of the schoolteachers. That's invaluable to an organization like ours.”

“Without a doubt we're losing probably the most significant employee who ever walked out the door of this organization. His institutional knowledge of the both the city and the department cannot be replaced, but as a result of Mike's hard work and dedication to the department, when he took a command staff role in April 2011, he's definitely leaving the organization better than he found it, and I think that is the goal for all of us,” Chief Hill said.

Mayor Duncan congratulated Captain Jones on his retirement.