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LORAIN COUNTY

AMHERST NEWS-TIMES • OBERLIN NEWS-TRIBUNE • WELLINGTON ENTERPRISE Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023

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Volume 10, Issue 7

Armbruster named county administrator DAVE O’BRIEN THE CHRONICLE-TELEGRAM

Longtime North Ridgeville politician and current Safety Service Director Jeff Armbruster will take over as Lorain County administrator starting Feb. 21, the county Board of Commissioners announced Wednesday. Armbruster has been the city’s safety service director since late 2009. He was the Republican mayor of North Ridgeville for two terms from 1989 to 1995 and a state senator from 1998 to 2006. A businessman, he also previously owned a series of gas stations in Ohio. At the conclusion of Wednesday’s meeting, Commissioner David Moore said the board intends to officially hire Armbruster at its Feb. 21 meeting at 5 p.m. that day in the County Administration Building, 226 Middle Ave., Elyria. Current County Administrator J.R. White will remain administrator until the board can pass a resolution hiring Armbruster, Moore said. White will then become the county’s human resources director, the board announced. “There’s rumors, the staff is uneasy, and we want to make sure they know we’re moving forward,” Moore said. In a statement he sent to The Chronicle-Telegram, Armbruster wrote that he is “extremely excited to begin serving Lorain

County” as administrator. “As a longtime resident of Lorain County, I am passionate about supporting all facets of the county as it continues to grow and prosper,” he wrote. “I bring a tremendous amount of expertise to the county with my past experience in state and local government over the past 25 years as a city councilperson, mayor, safety service director and state senator.” “I look forward to working and collaborating with state, county, local safety forces, county, township, and local government agencies, state and federal government representatives, local school districts, (Lorain County Community College) and other higher learning institutions, to provide the residents of Lorain County with a strong leadership team that has integrity while promoting and focusing on fiscal responsibility,” Armbruster wrote. As human resources, or HR, and special projects director, White replaces Jen Sinatra, who resigned from the job in August. Wednesday’s news follows weeks of rumors that commissioners would be making changes to top administrative positions. In a news release, the commissioners said the changes were announced “as we progress to build a team to service the citizens of Lorain County through a strategy based on performance and professionalARMBRUSTER PAGE A3 Classifieds, legals, display advertising, and subscriptions Deadline: 1 p.m. each Monday Phone: 440-329-7000 Hours: 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday

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Jeff Barnes | The Chronicle-Telegram

Lt. Dan Makruski speaks of his career with the department. Makruski retired last week after being with the Amherst Police Department for 26 years.

Amherst police lieutenant retires, plans to work toward school safety CARISSA WOYTACH THE CHRONICLE-TELEGRAM

AMHERST — After 26 years, Lt. Dan Makruski walked out of the Amherst Police Department for the last time Feb. 9. “I know God’s got bigger plans for me. It’s a retirement on paper, but it’s just a change of mission in my head,” he said while sitting in his office Feb. 8 afternoon. Left out of the plastic totes he’d used to pack files away was a picture of him and his wife; a photo from a Sept. 11, 2001, memorial in New York City they’d visited on their honey-

The department he joined that spring was one far different than the one he leaves in 2023. He remembered writing reports on typewriters or the initial word processors, and when VCR dashcams were added. Guns have changed, TASERS were added to their tool belts and shields made standard for all officers, but the attitude of the public toward the department, and Makruski’s commitment to Amherst itself, has stayed. “When I took Amherst’s test there were probably 70-80 people who took the test and there were probably 30 people on the civil service list to be hired.

Right now, we’re giving a test and I think there’s 10 people on the list … So back then I was like hey, thank God I got a job that I like in a good town and I’m going to stay here the whole time.” The highlights were adrenaline-fueled situations, including helping a man who’d been hit by a train behind Nordson Corp. in 1998. Makruski helped get fire and EMS down to the tracks and the man ultimately survived the ordeal, he said. Another incident some time back choked up the longtime veteran, as he recounted responding to a RETIREMENT PAGE A3

Teacher’s lawsuit pending against JVS OWEN MACMILLAN THE CHRONICLE-TELEGRAM

OBERLIN – A lawsuit filed by carpentry teacher Jason Rodriguez hangs over proceedings as the Lorain County Joint Vocational School Board of Education moves to fire him. Rodriguez, who is suspended without pay, filed a complaint against the JVS

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moon; a Humvee window propped against the window behind him. Other mementos were still on the walls of his office but would be taken with him before his end of watch the next day. When Makruski joined the department in 1996, — a year after he’d left the Army — he told the officer interviewing him he wanted to continue to help people. In his five years of active duty before that, he’d served in Operation Desert Storm and felt like he’d helped people. “I enjoy helping people, that’s something I think once you feel that way, it doesn’t go away,” he said.

Board of Education in Lorain County Common Pleas Court on Nov. 2. Rodriguez asked the court to force the board to either offer him the continuing teaching contract he says he is entitled to, or explain why it hadn’t offered him such a contract for the 2021-22 school year. Rodriguez joined the JVS under a limited teaching contract in the spring of

2019 and worked as a carpentry teacher. The lawsuit states that by January 2021, Rodriguez had met the qualifications to be offered a continuing teaching contract for the 2021-22 school year, and informed the JVS board of this. The JVS Board voted in May 2022 to approve a one-year limited contract for Rodriguez who argued

that, under state law, he should have been awarded a continuing contract or offered an explanation why he was not. The board did not give a reason why it was trying to fire Rodriguez when it voted to suspend him without pay and move forward with termination proceedings during a special meeting on Jan. 30.

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