Rossford council fills vacant seat

Minarcin elected after 4 tries to take over Duricek’s term

Joseph ‘Moe’ Minarcin, Jr., will be sworn in today to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Chuck Duricek, who was the highest vote-getter in the Nov. 5 election. Mr. Minarcin must run again in 2015.

Joseph “Moe” Minarcin, Jr., Rossford City Council’s pick to fill an empty seat on their panel, is to be sworn in at council’s regular meeting today.

He will fill the vacancy left by the unexpected Thanksgiving Day death of Chuck Duricek, a veteran council member who was the highest vote-getter in the Nov. 5 election. Mr. Minarcin must run in 2015 to retain the seat, in accordance with the Rossford City Charter.

Mr. Minarcin, 67, a lifelong Rossford resident, spent 16 years on the Rossford school board, leaving in 2009, and is a graduate of the school district.

He was chosen from five candidates after a 2½-hour special meeting last week that included a 90-minute open session during which the candidates were questioned on subjects ranging from their experience and skill sets to the time commitments they could make, and a closed session that lasted almost an hour.

After the closed session, the divided council required four rounds of voting to finally decide on Mr. Minarcin by a vote of 5-1. Councilman Jerry Staczek was the only no vote. Mr. Staczek supported William Carroll, chairman of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority and a retired president and chief operating officer of Dana Corp.

The other candidate with council support was Bob Densic, an architect who oversees the facilities at Eastern Michigan University. The other candidates were Pamela Domalski-Duricek, Mr. Duricek’s widow, who is an advanced nurse assistant/​medical technician at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, and Dennis Foy, a former councilman and Rossford police chief.

Mr. Densic and Mr. Foy ran unsuccessfully for council in November.

For now, Mr. Minarcin said, he plans to ask questions and do a lot of listening. “I want to get out and learn a bit,” he said. “I spent a lot of time on the school board, but that’s a different kind of experience.”

Mr. Minarcin is retired from the 180th Fighter Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard, where he spent 35 years. As an air crew life-support supervisor, his responsibilities included ensuring pilots’ equipment, such as helmets, oxygen masks, flight suits, and night-vision goggles, was in good working order.

“It was a pretty detail-oriented job,” he said. He said he also repacked and installed parachutes and survival-kit assemblies and provided mandatory training for pilots and flight surgeons.

He retired as a chief master sergeant in 2005. His responsibilities at the 180th, he said, taught him the importance of accountability and “looking after the other troops,” a philosophy he said he’ll bring to his duties as a council member.

At the questioning session, he noted that Rossford’s streets were in poor shape, and he backed closer ties between the city and the schools.

Mr. Minarcin owned Moe’s Place Bar and Restaurant in downtown Rossford from 1978 to 1992. He and his wife, Jewell, have two daughters.

Today’s council meeting starts at 7:30 p.m.