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Trustee honored for work on sheriff's memorial
(by Joseph Koziol Jr. - August 18, 2010)
Trustee honored for work on sheriff's memorial
By JOSEPH KOZIOL JR.
Burton Township Trustee James Dvorak was honored for his community work outside of the township offices.
He was recognized by the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers with the industry's highest honor, a Craft Award, given to those who perform "outstanding community service."
Mr. Dvorak was given the Craft Award for Outstanding Public Service, the top award of the 22 given by the union since the recognition was started 25 years ago.
It was Mr. Dvorak's work in bringing the Red Simmons Memorial to fruition at the Geauga County Safety Center on Ravenna Road (Route 44) in Munson. He was recognized formally at a Geauga County Commissioners meeting recently for the accomplishment.
But Mr. Dvorak said he cannot take sole credit for a project that involved so many people and organizations that also lent their hands to the gazebo, walkway and gardens that now provide a lasting tribute to a sheriff who served the community until his sudden death. "Every participant accomplished more than we thought we could by giving more than we thought we had," he said.
The Craft Award is given by the trade organization that is made up of more than 100,000 skilled masonry-trowel trades craft workers in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam and Canada.
Mr. Dvorak has been a 38-year member of Local 16 Ohio and the marketing representative for the Ohio Administrative District Council of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers.
The organization cited Mr. Dvorak's involvement in his community as being a positive role model for the industry.
"Active in many outreach and service organizations in his community over the years, Jim has used his exceptional talents as a bricklayer and cement mason to raise public awareness of what a skilled trade organization is and the important role it plays in supporting the communities in which members live," according to a press release.
Mr. Dvorak's work on the memorial began two years before a brick was laid as a member of the committee, which planned the tribute. He said he served alongside Geauga County Sheriff Dan McClelland and Commissioners Tracy Jemison and William Young.
Mr. Dvorak said many of the area's civic organizations contributed to the project. The Burton-Middlefield Rotary Club, of which he is a member, played a large role in project, contributing money and time. The Chardon Eagles provide $20,000 for the materials for the gazebo and master gardeners designed and planted the flowers there.
Mr. Dvorak lent his skills for the brick and cement works, designing the monument walls and other elements.
Those walls were built with two types of masonry units corresponding with the old and new safety centers and capped with red cast stone materials. On the west wall, a marker made of jet black granite with laser etching of the late sheriff faces the new safety center.
Mr. Dvorak said members of Local 16 joined him in building the monument walls and laying out the footers for the project.
He said he never anticipated receiving the award. "I was very surprised," he said. "I just thought the chances of me winning were so minute."
Mr. Dvorak said between 80 and 100 union members had been nominated for the award.
Skills in construction trades are somewhat of a Dvorak family tradition. His father, Bernie, was a tradesman, and laid the bricks at the old safety center in 1961. His father also built the brick sign that stands outside St. Mary's Catholic Church in Chardon.
He said he simply followed his hard-working father's footsteps into the trade.
Mr. Dvorak's son, Mark J., is not far behind in his father's footsteps. The younger Mr. Dvorak will continue the family name in the construction business as he is about to graduate from the University of Akron with a degree in civil engineering at the end of this year.
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