The Taylorville Kiwanis Club heard from a former Taylorville firefighter who is now a State Fire Marshall Investigator at its Tuesday meeting at the Taylorville Moose Lodge.

Bob Dunn was a long-time Taylorville firefighter who is now one of just 16 State Fire Marshall Investigators in Illinois.  As a result, he and his fellow investigators are on call 24/7.

Dunn also introduced the Kiwanis club to his K-9 Oodon, a yellow lab retriever, who was trained thru the federal A-T-F to sniff out any kind of accelerant when investigating fires.   Dunn talked about the training Oodon went thru, and how he continues to train the dog each day.

He put extremely small amounts of various accelerants thru-out the Moose Lodge meeting room where the Kiwanis Club holds their meetings, and in all 6 cases Oodon found them.

Oodon is now 2 ½ years old and Dunn added the K-9 should be able to serve the state agency for 8 years.

In Kiwanis business, Kiwanis Park co-chair Duane Stock announced that some new picnic tables have been assembled and will be installed at the Park this week.

And, Kiwanis member Blain Cornwell is continuing to organize the annual fund raiser where local Kiwanis members are paid to man some of the gates at the Illinois State Fair on 2 days of its 10-day run in Springfield. 

The Taylorville Kiwanis Club is part of a global organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world one child and one community at a time.  Weekly meetings are held Tuesdays at noon at the Taylorville Moose Lodge.  For information on the club, go to taylorvillekiwanis.com.