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County employee retires after 46 years of service
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
In 1965, when Myrdis Ledbetter landed a job working at the Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer’s Office, a young boxer named Cassius Clay had just changed his name to Muhammad Ali, the Houston Astros and New York Yankees had just played the first indoor Major League Baseball game in Houston, and Spaghetti-Os first hit the market.
And Ledbetter, then 38, of Masury, became one of the few blacks working for county government.
“I like my job, and it came at a time when African-Americans didn’t get good jobs,” Ledbetter said Wednesday at the county commissioners meeting room, where she was honored for the 46 years she worked at the sanitary engineer’s office.
“I had something to prove. I wanted to prove that I was as capable as anyone else,” Ledbetter, 83, said of taking care of the county’s water and sewer customers.
Even though Ledbetter graduated sixth in her class at Farrell High School in 1945, she was not allowed to handle money right away at her new job, she said.
Officials say her 46 years make her one of the longest-serving county employees in history.
“In my 28 years, her decisions and faith are with God,” her boss, Rex Fee, said of Ledbetter.
County Auditor Adrian Biviano, who worked with Ledbetter for 14 years in the 1980s and 1990s, said Ledbetter always handled herself professionally.
“We called her ‘mom’ because she helped everybody,” Biviano said.
The commissioners also recognized Barbara Johnston of Girard, who retired as administrative assistant to Jim Keating in the county human resources department after 23 years.
“There are times when she literally had to hold the phone a foot from her ear,” Keating said of Johnston. “People are upset, but never once did I hear her complain.”
Commissioners also honored Barbara Armour, who will retire soon from the county Department of Job and Family Services after 30 years and Denise Rumph King, who will retire soon from that department after 32 years.
Meanwhile, the county commissioners approved the renewal of the county’s insurance policy with the County Risk Sharing Authority Inc. for property, liability and fleet insurance at a cost of $602,703.
Officials correctly predicted the insurance cost would rise as a result of claims paid out last year to settle cases filed against county Engineer David DeChristofaro.
The county paid CORSA $561,732 in 2010, or $40,971 less.
Two people who sued DeChristofaro — former employees Matt Dohy and Amanda Latell, relatives of former county engineer John Latell — received a combined $490,000 in out-of-court settlements related to their termination when DeChristofaro took office in 2009. Of that, CORSA paid $273,797. The county paid the rest.