TRUMBULL COUNTY Brooms in hand, 3 neat senior citizens sweep floors at administration building

A custodian returning to work Monday was going to sweep floors, officials say.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A volunteer squad of three senior citizens spent 45 minutes sweeping Trumbull County Administration Building floors on Monday, wielding brooms they brought from home.
"We pay our taxes, and we want the buildings to look clean," said Don Dedow, 72, of Warren, as he pushed a pile of dust into a pan in front of county commissioners' offices.
"We don't want to come back, but we will if we have to," said another sweeper, Bill Horton, 70, of Southington.
County floors have not been getting done with great regularity since many custodians were laid off earlier this year.
The union that represents county employees filed a grievance against Commissioner James G. Tsagaris after he claimed to have swept the floors -- by contract, a union job -- several weeks ago.
Still laid off
Fourteen maintenance and vehicle maintenance department employees remain on furlough, even after four more returned to work Monday.
One of those who returned to work was to have swept the floors during the afternoon, said Al DeVengencie, the department head.
Floors in the county building were to have been swept then, he said.
He said no one at the county felt good about a group of septuagenarians volunteering to clean the floors.
"Whenever there are people laid off, it is a hard thing," DeVengencie said.
The notion of volunteers doing the work of paid employees upset Greg Delrosso, vice president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 2493.
"Are they going to start cutting the grass?" he said. "Where do you draw the line?"
They're just neat
The men, who came up with the idea while sitting around a local donut shop, said they had no beef with the union.
"We are not union busters -- don't get us wrong -- we are just concerned Trumbull County Citizens," said Moose Offerdahl, 74, of Howland.
siff@vindy.com