Heidelberg College intern is Lorain's new service/safety director

For many years, our region has expressed its concern for a serious “Brain Drain” issue. How do we keep the tens of thousands of our regional university students here upon graduation? How do we formulate a new economy without a properly educated workforce? How do we create an attractive atmosphere where young people can live, work and play? The questions never seem to have clear answers, and the Brain Drain issue waxes and wanes in the light of other regional problems, but today’s article in the Plain Dealer sheds some light on a new way of thinking.

PD report Molly Kavanaugh writes: “Andy Winemiller walked into City Hall last month as a college intern earning $7.50 an hour in Mayor John Romoser's office. This week, the 21-year-old political science major became the city's $7,500-a-month service and safety director, a job that has him overseeing one of the region's more troubled police departments as well as the plowing of city streets.”

Heads are spinning. How can a 21-year-old possibly take on this position? He has no previous city street plowing experience! All joking aside, Mayor Romoser has the right idea. Take a young, ambitious student and give him an opportunity he probably couldn’t find anywhere else.