Officer, firefighter/paramedic sworn in as full-time by township

Staff report

AUSTINTOWN

Township trustees hired two full-time employees at their Monday meeting.

Firefighter and paramedic Michael Hebebrand and officer David Kriebel were both sworn in as full-time members of the fire and police departments, respectively. Hebebrand joined Austintown Fire in a probationary role in Aug. 2012 and later became part-time.

Trustee Lisa Oles told Hebebrand, “You come from a really nice family and we’re proud to have you in our family in the township.”

Kriebel joined Austintown police part time about nine months ago, police Chief Robert Gavalier said. “He quit some of his full-time jobs to do this,” Gavalier noted. He was hired through a federal grant.

Trustee Jim Davis and Oles noted two deaths in the township recently.

Davis talked about Larry Ortz and emotionally said, “Sometimes life’s not fair.” Ortz, a 1975 Fitch High School graduate, needed two lung transplants, Oles said.

She noted the death of Mark Aikens, who died of a heart attack at age 28. She read of some of the media stories of his time playing at Fitch High School in 2004.

“This has been a hard week for our township,” she said. “He was a respected young man.”