Child donates stuffy to library

AVON LAKE — Anderson Stahl walked into the Avon Lake Public Library Feb. 7 to catch up with a long-lost friend.

It was a big moment. Anderson, all of 6 years old, somehow got separated from his ever-fast companion around Thanksgiving time, near as anyone can figure.

His best friend was a tiny stuffed orange and white tabby cat with green eyes named Kitty, a little worn by love and softened by adventure. The two had been constant buddies since — well, since he was 3.

“I wish there was a fun story of how she was acquired,” said Anderson’s mother, Maribeth Stahl. “It was more of a ‘Mom, I need this’ coming out of the pandemic kind of thing.” county staff was “an amicable one,” with “differing opinions and ideas and a consensus that the commissioners have made a consensus to go forward with this particular schedule.”

“... But at no time did anyone disagree with the concept that we’re going to increase our transparency” and “make ourselves more visible and make our government more accessible,” Riddell said.

The board of commissioners last tried to adjust its meeting schedule in mid-2021 after Moore and Commissioner Michelle Hung took office.

Starting in June 2021, the commissioners moved their weekly regular business meetings to 6 p.m. Wednesdays to encourage more public participation.

That failed when “we just didn’t have the community participation we thought would happen,” Moore told The ChronicleTelegram in August 2021.

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The family, along with father Chris and older brother Parker, 9, were moving to Avon at the time from Nashville and were staying with Maribeth’s parents in Avon Lake for a while when their house was being finished.

Great fans of the Avon Lake Public Library, grandparents Debby and Geff Hill often took the boys to the library to play at Discovery Works or devour the Dog Man children’s books series.

Sometime in fall, Kitty disappeared and Anderson’s heart was broken.

For months they searched with no luck. By Christmas, a new orange tabby with green eyes — an exact replica, ordered from the same toy company — was under the Christmas tree. But then in January, an unusual thing happened: Debby Hill spotted, for the first time in months, the longlost little tabby.

“I saw the post on Facebook and I thought, ‘Could that be Kitty?’” Hill said.

The post was on the Avon Lake Library’s page, and was the idea of Communication Manager Shea Alltmont. When a children’s librarian found Kitty — whom library staff dubbed “Aurora” for the tag bearing the toy company’s name — Alltmont began posing Aurora around the library in various shenanigans, in tiny costumes, in an effort to find its owner.

The posts took on a life of their own, speedily gaining a following online and in person. Aurora became a local celebrity.

After a column ran in the Chronicle last month, Maribeth Stahl reached out to Alltmont and sent photos of Anderson and Kitty at the beach, at a water park, sleeping together.

Plans were made for a reunion.

Alltmont made a sign and a tiny T-shirt for Aurora to wear to greet Anderson declaring Aurora a library ambassador: Anderson received a matching one.

Anderson showed up with his new Kitty and made a brave announcement: He had decided, after a lot of big thinking, that Aurora should stay at the library. ism.”

It would be good for the library, he thinks, and he has Kitty now.

But Aurora wouldn’t be left alone.

He packed her a sparkly little pink backpack to keep her company. In it he stashed a few of her favorite miniature foods, like ice cream cones. There were some “experience bottles” — filled with sparkles and clay, “you know, so you can make experiences with them, because she likes science like I do” — and a tiny phone, “so she can call Unicorny,” her favorite fellow stuffy she left behind at home.

“I think it will be good for her to live here now,” he said, sitting Aurora in a shelf and nodding while moving on, grabbing his new Kitty. He didn’t look back.

White would be filling “a critical opening in human resources,” the commissioners wrote.

“This will (ensure) that his years of experience in employment law can be utilized without interference from the other demands as county administrator,” the news release said. White’s “short but important time as administrator will allow him to integrate policy and procedure throughout the system. He is tasked with making sure the hundreds of employees of the county are served and the taxpayers assured that the laws and procedures are followed, avoiding unnecessary litigation and turmoil.”

Armbruster “will bring a lifetime of private business experience accumulated while serving the public in multiple capacities from state senator, mayor, and safety service director. He will be tasked with coordinating county daily activity to serve the needs of the county residents, and to instill consistent goals and expectations throughout the organization,” the commissioners wrote.

North Ridgeville Mayor Kevin Corcoran praised Armbruster’s service to the city.

“Jeff Armbruster has spent most of his career serving the public in some role for the city of North Ridgeville, and his contributions to the city and residents have been immeasurable,” Corcoran said Feb. 8. “Jeff is a unique man. He has brought so much to the city with his business knowledge and government knowledge, and it will certainly be missed. But I am happy to have him still serving the people of North Ridgeville, now along with the whole county.”

White to lead county HR Commissioner Jeff Riddell said White’s new role in HR is a “100 percent fit for his skill set, as well as one of the most pressing issues that we need to do.”

“His time at the county administrator’s office will guide him well and it will give him global perspective on the HR, and allow us to move forward with a very urgent need that we have,” Riddell said.

White first applied for the job of Lorain County Job & Family Services director when it was left vacant by the firing of Tim Carrion in August 2021. He didn’t get the job, but instead was presented the opportunity to become county administrator, “an opportunity I couldn’t let slip by even if it was not a long-term thing,” he told commissioners.

There is no “How To Be An Administrator” manual, White said, and county government was “in a tumultuous state” when he took over in October 2021.

Though White didn’t specify the tumult, he was brought on board shortly after Commissioner Michelle Hung’s extramarital affair with former Lorain County 911 Director Harry Williamson was confirmed publicly for the first time.

Hung voted to hire Williamson without notifying her fellow commissioners that the two were in a sexual relationship. Moore and former Commissioner Matt Lundy voted to fire Williamson after they found out about the affair, but Hung abstained from that vote.

Williamson is suing the commissioners in Lorain County Common Pleas Court. It is one of several lawsuits by former county employees making their way through the courts.

“I understand each board has the right to pick their administrator and after lengthy discussions, both sides agreed my time had run its course,” White said, “but the problem with the mutual decision was we still wanted to work together.”

White thanked Riddell, domestic situation with a man threatening to harm his family. Officers surrounded the house, Makruski and another Amherst officer at the back of the home when they heard the man say he was going to get his shotgun.

Hung, Moore and Lundy for their support during his tenure, and pledged his “full support” to Armbruster.

A licensed attorney, White specialized in employment law before the commissioners hired him in October 2021. He was given a salary of $149,900 for a one-year contract, at the end of which he became an at-will employee. From mid-2005 to mid2021 this year, White worked at Fauver Co. LPA in Elyria, a law firm that represented Lorain County businesses, including The Chronicle-Telegram, in legal matters.

Fourth administrator Armbruster will make the fourth county administrator since Republicans took control of the board of commissioners in January 2021.

White was hired in October 2021 to replace Rob Weber, who spent two months on the job before commissioners fired him.

Weber replaced Tom Williams, who had the job from January to August 2021, when Lundy and Hung fired him.

Moore voted “hell no” against firing Williams, his former campaign manager. When commissioners refused to pay his severance package, Williams sued them in federal court and the case was settled for $450,000. The county spent at least $150,000 in legal fees to fight Williams’ lawsuit.

Williams replaced Jim Cordes, who was fired by former Commissioners Lundy, Lori Kokoski and Sharon Sweda in December 2020 after 20 years on the job so he could collect a severance package worked out by Moore and the board of commissioners during Moore’s first term in 2000.

Political allies at the time, Moore and Hung openly discussed firing Cordes’ before being elected to the board in November 2020.

Makruski busted out the sliding glass door and officers were able to subdue the man before he was able to get his gun and harm police or his family.

“There’s been times when it’s like you know you helped somebody…

Sometimes you just get in your cruiser at the end of a call and take a deep break and just think ‘I just helped somebody and that’s a good thing,’” he said.

“That’s why you do it.”

He’s run dual careers in the Army National Guard and Amherst Police for nearly three decades. Currently, Makruski is a command sergeant major with the 1-145th Armor Regiment based out of Stow. He joined the National Guard in 1999 and has been deployed to Fort Knox, Kentucky, after Sept. 11, 2001; Iraq in 20062007; Afghanistan in 2012; Jordan in 2017; Washington, D.C., in June 2020 amid protests following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer; and January 2021 for President Joe Biden’s inauguration after the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“I’ve been very blessed to have these dual careers and I’ve used the skills, experience and training from one career to make myself better at the other,” he said.

“I’ve testified in Baghdad Central (Criminal) Court after catching a couple of escapees … which is something you do as a police officer. Here, with SWAT I’ve worn a camouflage uniform, helmet and body armor and carried a rifle.”

Makruski’s retirement starts today, but his new job starts Monday.

Rather than park himself in the sand on some beach, Makruski is one of 16 mobile training officers for the Ohio School Safety Center. The position, created by Ohio House Bill 99, will allow Makruski to train teachers or other school staff whose districts authorize them to carry firearms for schools in Lorain, Erie and Huron counties.

It was serendipity that brought him to his state job.

After the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last year, Makruski was traveling with his wife to Fort Campbell, Tennessee, when he had an epiphany.

“We happened to stop in a hotel in Louisville for the night and I woke up the next morning and I just had this epiphany or this feeling that ‘I don’t have to keep doing this job, I can do something else,’” he said.

He wanted to use his military and police experience to make schools safer, and do whatever he could to prevent or prepare for a mass school shooting like that in Lorain County.

He’d done active-shooter exercises with Amherst Schools in the past, but as more reports came out about the Uvalde response, he wanted to do more.

He called several Lorain County officials and asked if there were any positions where he’d be able to help schools prepare, but was told there was nothing available.

After searching online, he came across the Ohio School Safety Center and applied for a liaison position. But while waiting for his interview, he watched as Ohio House Bill 99 passed and created the mobile training job.

“I’m so blessed, it’s amazing,” he said.

Makruski plans to continue to serve with the Army National Guard and the Lorain County SWAT team while working in his new role with the Ohio School Safety Center.

When not working — or working out in his home gym — Makruski spends time with his wife, Mariam, and children Ashley, 24, Danny, 22, and stepsons Alex Kernell, 22, and Aidan Kernell, 20.