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Vol. 11 Issue 42
Economics turned the county red in 2020. Will it again? DAVID KNOX THE COMMUNITY GUIDE
CARISSA WOYTACH | The Community Guide
ABOVE: Eagle Scouts Will Bobeck (right) and Luke Young (left) were presented with plaques commemorating their work to upgrade Pulaski Park as part of their Eagle Scout project during a rededication ceremony of the park on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. BELOW: Bernadette Zubel (left) and Krystyna Kolenda (right) sing the Polish National Anthem.
Pulaski Park rededicated
CARISSA WOYTACH THE COMMUNITY GUIDE
LORAIN — Rain misted churchgoers as they left Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish on Oct. 13. But they did not rush to their cars. Instead, they lined the sidewalk behind a procession of the Polish and American flags, singing as they made their way to nearby Pulaski Park. Nearly 90 years after the park’s initial dedication, churchgoers, veterans and city officials rededicated the park after a volunteer committee completed major upgrades to the space. The park, at West 15th and 17th streets in Lorain,
is named for Casimir Pulaski, a Polish cavalryman who volunteered to fight for Gen. George Washington and the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Commissioned a brigadier general, he reorganized and trained the army’s cavalry units and died in 1779 from wounds suffered during the siege of Savannah, Georgia. Mike Kachure, AMVETS Post 47 commander, said the journey began four years ago when Lorainite Stephen Bansek saw the park in need of help. Soon, Kachure was recruited to co-head the initiative. “This quickly morphed into a veterans project, a PULASKI PAGE A2
What do Barack Obama and Donald Trump have in common? For many, that’s an absurd question. How much more different can two people be? Different politics, different parties, different backgrounds, different races, different generations. But the irrefutable fact is that Obama and Trump do share something: They both won the presidency by challenging their party’s establishment. Obama, a freshman senator, won the Democratic nomination in a hard-fought primary war with Hillary Clinton, two-term senator from New York and first lady of President Bill Clinton. Trump, who had never held elected office, bested a primary field of more than a dozen veteran GOP politicians, including John Kasich, then Ohio’s governor; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and early favorite Jeb Bush, then Florida’s governor. Like Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush — son of President George H. Bush and younger brother of President George W. Bush — was heir to a political dynasty. What most distinguished the long-shot victories of Trump and Obama was their willingness to criticize their parties. Obama opposed the Iraq war and criticized Hillary Clinton and the majority of Senate Democrats who voted to authorize the war. He also introduced legislation to withdraw American forces from Iraq by 2008. Obama’s campaign slogan, “Change We Can Believe In,” was an explicit promise to change the status quo. Trump was even more critical of the Republican Party, vowing to “drain the swamp,” of Washington insiders. “The voters in the Republican Party this year defied the donors, the consultants, the power brokers, and chose a nominee from outside our failed and corrupt and broken system,” Trump said at an August 2016 campaign rally in West Bend, Wisconsin. An advantage of flying under a banner of change and challenging your own party is its appeal to independents. Obama and Trump both took a higher percentage of votes of independents in winning the presidency, according to exit polls compiled by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University. Obama won 52 percent of the independents in the 2008 general election compared to 44 percent for Republican John McCain. In 2016, Trump took the VOTE PAGE A5
Judge: Proper procedure followed in Tomlinson, Burge booking DAVE O’BRIEN THE COMMUNITY GUIDE
Proper Elyria Municipal Court procedure was followed in the initial process to have Lorain County Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson and his chief of staff, James Burge, fingerprinted at the Lorain County Jail last week after their initial appearance before a visiting judge on felony charges. Municipal Judge Gary Bennett — who is not involved in the case — said Monday that Visiting Judge Patrick Carroll followed proper procedure for when a person receives a summons to appear in his court on felony charges. The Lorain County Sheriff’s Office typically takes finger-
JAMES BURGE prints, photographs and DNA swabs from accused felons during the booking process at the jail. Booked Oct. 10, Burge and Tomlinson were required only to provide fingerprints. That booking photos and DNA were not taken raised questions about possible favoritism toward the two men: Booking photos are typical and DNA collection has J.D. TOMLINSON
been required for accused felons in Ohio for more than a dozen years. Tomlinson, 43, of Amherst, is charged with with intimidation, tampering with evidence and attempted bribery. Burge, 77, of Avon, is charged with intimidation and tampering with evidence. All the charges are felonies, and the men are represented by attorney Michael Camera. They are due back in Elyria Municipal Court on Wednesday for a hearing. An email exchange between Sheriff Phil Stammitti and Bennett obtained by The ChronicleTelegram from a public records request shows Stammitti expresed “a few concerns over this process” on Oct. 10.
“Since these are felony charges, our normal procedure is that they be booked in, photographed, DNA swab and fingerprinted, otherwise we don’t have the required information for BCI, etc.,” Stammitti wrote Bennett. “I understand that they receive(d) a personal bond, and then they are released after this process. Could you please clarify this for us.” Bennett replied by email: “The fingerprint order you referred to is the standard order we issue when defendants appear without fingerprints in a fingerprintable offense. We worked with your staff to put this order together and streamline the process.” Carroll’s “fingerprints-only” order complied with Ohio Supreme Court guidelines and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation
reporting, Bennett wrote. “This order results in the ITN being available to the court and the clerk’s office to forward to BCI. I can’t speak to the booking process and I can’t speak to these specific cases.” ITN stands for “incident tracking number,” an identifier required by BCI. It is generated at a digital fingerprint terminal and if missing, BCI can’t give complete and accurate criminal history information, according to the Ohio Supreme Court. Bennett said if Stammitti had decided to arrest Tomlinson and Burge, take them to jail and book them instead of issue a summons, a different process would have been followed. Carroll made his order after BOOKING PAGE A2
INSIDE THIS WEEK Spooky fun
Annual Halloween fair returns A3
Oberlin
Sports
County mulls Pittsfield annexation. A4
Wellington Homecoming A6
OBITS A2 • SPORTS A6 • CROSSWORD A7 • SUDOKU A7 • KID SCOOP A8