By Kevin Greer, Lakeside Communications Manager
Ty Trumbull does a little bit of everything as Lakeside’s Environmental Facilities Supervisor. The same can be said of him before he started working with Lakeside’s excellent Maintenance Team two years ago.
Trumbull served in the U.S. Army for 3 ½ years. He was a ranger who was stationed at Schofield Barracks near Wahiawa, Hawaii. He also had airborne duties. So, while we thank him for the great job he’s doing at Lakeside, we can also thank him for his service.
If the name Trumbull sounds familiar, he’s a descendant of Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull, who once owned land in a region now known as Trumbull County in Northeast Ohio. It was named after Jonathan and was established July 10, 1800, serving as the seventh county in the Northwest Territory. Warren is the county seat and is about a two-hour drive from Lakeside.
Trumbull enjoyed working on cars, so he took some advice from his grandfather and became a mechanic. After working a few years at Cooper Tire in Bowling Green, he moved near Port Clinton.
“My grandfather told me if you love your job, you never work a day in your life,” Trumbull said.
After moving, he worked at a couple garages, the last was a five-year stint at Mike’s Catawba Service Center. But due to medical complications after contracting COVID-19, he had to step aside. Now “100% back,” he’s a key contributor to the Maintenance Team.
“I take pride in what I do, and I make sure it’s done right,” Trumbull said. “Our Maintenance Team is unreal. It’s a great team because we’re hard-working and dependable.”
Dave Geyer is the Vice President of Facilities & Safety Services. Trumbull, along with Dave Hirsch, Andy Larson, Peter Ladd and Jeff Robbins are the full-timers. The staff also has four part-timers and two J1 students from Romania on a temporary basis. Trumbull has a lot of respect for his boss and the rest of the team.
“Dave Geyer is a great man,” Trumbull said. “He’s stern, but he’s fair. Everyone on the team is great. We all work together well, and we get the job done.”
Trumbull doesn’t have a specialty but is comfortable doing any job he’s asked. He doesn’t mind the “crazy” hours or getting calls at home when a problem arises.
One of the more difficult jobs he had to do at Lakeside was restringing the flagpole on the dock. They had to rent special equipment to finish the task and conditions didn’t make it easier.
“It didn’t take a long time, but that was probably the most mind-challenging, physical job I’ve done,” Trumbull said. “I’m not scared of heights because I jumped out of airplanes, but since it’s unstable, that makes it a different story.”
Trumbull and the Maintenance Team are busy year-round. With a significant number of buildings in Lakeside, including two hotels, recreational facilities, historic structures and outdoors spaces, there’s also a lengthy list of cleaning, winterizing, painting, repairing and prepping of the facilities.
Maintenance is integral to the success of the thousands of events that take place on the grounds all year. The team serves as a support to the Programming and Conference & Events Departments with the set up and tear down of weddings, meetings and community events.
When the leaves begin to fall, Trumbull and the crew are responsible for fall and spring leaf pick-ups, as well as ensuring that Lakeside’s many benches, picnic tables, street signs, and equipment are organized and stored for the winter.
The team also keeps our nine miles of roads plowed and the sidewalks salted so that Lakesiders can enjoy the community in the wintertime. When the flowers begin to sprout in the spring, Trumbull and Maintenance are hard at work preparing the grounds for a new season by opening the facilities, shampooing carpets, cleaning the inside and outside of the buildings and replacing lighting.
In the summer, Trumbull said Fourth of July week is when things are almost non-stop. It’s not a coincidence since that week draws the largest crowds of the season at Lakeside. It’s a challenge for the team to make sure the grounds and facilities are as spotless as possible.
“We’re cleaning the restroom at Bettinger Park maybe six times a day that week,” Trumbull said. “That’s just one, and we take care of 14. Then we have 45 trash cans in addition to the recycle bins.”
Trumbull admits his job description is rather vague since he is capable of doing many things. He has trouble turning down a job when asked to do it and gets a lot of accolades for the team’s work from Lakesiders.
“I’m walking through Walnut Plaza and (Lakeside President & CEO) Kip (Greenhill) would come up and say ‘Hey, I hear great things about what your team is doing this year,’” Trumbull said. “For somebody out of the blue to walk up and say, ‘Thank you for what you do,’ that’s a whole lot of satisfaction.”
A project currently underway is painting inside Wo-Ho-Mis on the second and third floors, as well as the hallways. The team is also renovating the house at 624 Poplar Avenue for employee housing. In addition to big jobs, they also answer the call from Lakesiders to help move large or heavy objects.
“We don’t mind doing random projects,” Trumbull said. “That is what makes the team special.”
If you think Trumbull has a fast-paced job at Lakeside, his hobby is even faster. He is a drag racer and competes at Summit Sports Motorpark in Norwalk, National Trail Raceway near Columbus and Milan (Michigan) Dragway.
“I recently had the fastest pass I ever made,” Trumbull said. “I was going about 157 mph, so I ran pretty good.”
