Andy Russell, Chief Mechanic, County Garage - December 1, 2021

Well my name is Andy Russell and I'm the chief mechanic for the Warren County commissioners.

I was born in Wilmington, Ohio, August 31st, 1962.

I have lived my entire life here in Lebanon, Ohio. I feel very much kinship with that.

Prior jobs before employment here at Warren County, I worked for Russell's Auto Repair for four years during my high school years. I was actually working on cars from my freshman to my senior year. And that's how I ended up here at the county garage. We were actually working on the sheriff cruisers back in the 70s, rebuilding the transmissions in their vehicles. So actually that's how I ended up here.

May 26, 1981. And I started here May 27. I graduated on a Sunday and I started here on a Monday. I was hired as the assistant to the chief mechanic. I worked with him through the summer of 81 and then he bought a business here in town and went to that. I kept doing the job here and they posted the chief mechanic job and I took that job in October of 1981.

This garage was originally started at Justice Drive at the sheriff's office. It was a two-bay garage over there. I actually operated the county garage out of there for 25 years and then we moved. We've been over here over 15 years.

Well, when I first started, our main customer was the sheriff's office and that's 99% of my business. We did a good job. After I became chief mechanic, we had an assistant too, so two mechanics taking care of the sheriff's office. They had a total of 25 cars. The commissioners recognized that we had a talent and we started expanding. So today we have 40 different agencies, over 500 cars, and a crew of five mechanics. It went from Mayberry to where we're at today. The whole county grew and expanded. This is a business owned by the county and I operated it.

They're all agencies located within Warren County. Any of the government agencies that have fleets or cars could approach us if they want. We do a lot of different government agencies here. It's their choice if they want to take advantage of us.

Yeah, I like progress. Technology is good. The problem is trying to keep up with all the changes. The cars have really changed over the years. They were all mechanical, now they're all electronic. Cars are better today than ever, safer, run better, better gas mileage, comfortable. Everything's better. I like the old, I would like to go back there, but that's gone. Today where we're at, we're doing a good job.

Yes it has. We are having problems getting things, but we usually keep spares for emergency uses. We have extra patrol cars, extra water trucks, and we have materials in the garage that we need readily available so we can get the cars in and out. Because the cars and trucks are no good in this building. We need to maintain them and get them out because that's what they bought them for transportation, not to be worked on.

Well, I've been the chief mechanic for 40 years. I actually oversee everything that goes on here, every repair done here. I have individuals that I use for different things. I have heavy guys, people that build patrol cars, people that do programming on the cars. I oversee all that. And I actually participate in a lot of the work too, so I'm on the floor a lot. I have people that prepare things for me, then I approve them and send them down the line. I'm the last person in the chain of command that checks everything before it leaves the building.

It went by fast, I can tell you. I'm a second-generation mechanic. My father still wrenches on cars today he's 85 years old. I actually work part-time with him to this day. But you know, when you're interested in something and you like what you do, I never really considered leaving. I've had offers to go other places, but I've been my own boss for 40 years and the only thing they've ever asked of me is to keep this running, and that's what I've done. I've had a good job and a good time doing it. I've worked for some great people, a lot of different elected officials. Not only are my bosses, they were my friends. I've learned so much from so many people. It's been a good career, I've enjoyed it tremendously.

Well, over the years the county has had a lot of different machines. They've had snowmobiles, we've had boats for the lake, we actually had a helicopter. The first time I ever flew was in the county helicopter. It was Jerry Finland, a pilot. He ran disaster services back in the day, today called emergency services. That was the first time I ever flew in my life, in an Army surplus helicopter. They used to have a helicopter come down from the State of Ohio, his name was Juan Thompson. He had to be certified by the state. I worked with him on the helicopter and he showed me how to check the cabling for the rear rotor and how the ignition system worked with two magnetos. If one system failed, they could switch to the other so they didn't fall out of the sky like a rock. I flew in that thing three times. I'm still here.

I rode the snowmobiles more than any officer ever did. Every winter we would have to get them, they bought those snowmobiles. Actually, before I got here, they had the big blizzard of 78; I was still in school and I started here in 81. So every year we'd get the snowmobiles out and make sure they were operational. Some years we didn't get snow, but other years we did. I actually went on calls with the sheriff's office where they had to go out and do business in the winter, and they sent me with them to help operate the snowmobiles.

We probably had them for 20 years, maybe 25 years. They were '78 John Deere snowmobiles, a pair of them, actually manufactured by Kawasaki. Those were fun.

I'd take them over to the golf course and ride them on the golf course. As long as I didn't tear up the turf, they were fine with that. I never would have thought I'd be deadly. That's great.

I got the sheriff's office, water and sewer, building, electrical, zoning, commissioner's office, emergency services, Deerfield Township, South Lebanon, Waynesville, and a whole bunch more than the records.

Yeah, that actually came from emergency services. It was a police edition Jeep Cherokee, a little bit unique. Frank Young had that before and he operated telecom and emergency services.

The only time we interact with the public is when we're going out and maybe bidding for new cars or trucks, or we buy them on state contract, or dealing with body shops, or insurance agents. I deal a lot with insurance agents because we're constantly having cars wrecked. I've got two or three out here that are wrecked right now. I'll be dealing with insurance adjusters and body shops. Then we have to deem a value on a car if it's totaled, then make sure we're compensated. I work with Tammy Whitaker at OMB on insurance claims. I send the information to her and we get together to resolve whatever happened.

Before we go out and purchase a new car, usually the department head comes in and says they need cars. We go over specs and make sure they get what they need, keeping it at the minimum. The cars aren't plush, our trucks aren't plush. They do what they need to do. Our goal is to get them in, set them up. We build all our own police cars in-house. We wire every patrol car that was ever built here in Morgan County for 40 years. We build the cars for them, we call it doing the upfit. We track everything with the computer, watch expenses, and when it gets to a certain time we remove the vehicle from service. Our goal is to get a vehicle in service, make it look like something, represent the county well, and be financially responsible.

Those cars are decaled. We do all our own decaling here at the garage. We have a room with all our decals. We purchase them and install them. It usually takes a day to mark one of the patrol cars. It's like wallpapering because they put them on wet then dry them and use a squeegee. It's time-consuming and monotonous. I've lettered so many cars I don't care if I ever letter another.

It was cool at first, but after you do hundreds and hundreds of cars... I've trained other people and they're doing a better job than I ever did. Things get better with time and materials get better. I train them and they'll do the same someday for somebody else.

First thing we do is remove any of our electronics, all our police markings, and anything like that. We make sure the car is presentable. Then we put it on GovDeals and write a description up. It's sold and the money goes back to the general fund.

When I first started, I was making $3.75 an hour. I was just a kid. I went to work for the county and after about a year and a half I was chief mechanic. I realized I was producing a lot but not making much. I asked Sheriff Bob Dalton for a raise. He said 'How much you want?' I said a dime or a nickel. He laughed and said I wanted a dollar? I got 31 cents. I later asked a commissioner and got another raise. I worked with Sheriff Dalton for 6 years, Sheriff Collins for 6 years, Tom Aris for 16 years, and Larry is going into his fourth term. I've always worked close with them. If you take care of their cars, they take care of you. I've got some really good friends there. I want to show you this: this is off a 1979 Buick Sabre. I worked on this car back in the day. The deputy autographed it and gave it back to me. I usually give these to deputies when they retire a car. I worked on his cars for 35 years and he's since passed away. He was one of my best friends, Bill Spurlock, a great deputy. This desk I'm sitting at was in the sheriff's office for 40 years. The sheriff signed it and gave it to me. It's the desk that deputies would use when they were in trouble, to sign papers when they were getting reprimanded for banging up their cars. It's ironic that it ended up here.

That building was built in 74 or 75. What's ironic about that: that was a Democrat sheriff, the last Democrat I believe to hold office in Warren County. He got that complex built. His name was Roy Wallace, a three-term sheriff. He got beat on his fourth term by Bob Dalton from Franklin PD, who ran as a Republican. Dalton came in January of 81, and I showed up May 27, 1981. It was like Mayberry. Everybody knew everybody. They had three watches: first, second, third. They had a north unit and a south unit. At one time, during any shift, there would be three people on duty. Today it's totally different, with patrol cars all over the county. It really grew.

Well, the jailbreaks were probably hardened criminals, but your trustees were locals that you knew that kind of got in trouble. When I was over on Justice Drive, they had trustees out. I had a gentleman acquaintance that was an excellent mechanic and he worked with me that summer, I think it was 2003. He said he loved the work and enjoyed the company but hated going home at night because he was in jail. He did a nice job for us. I guess he got rehabilitated and became a productive person in society.

I know you said you were born in Wilmington. Well, there were no hospitals in Warren County. I think there was one downtown in Lebanon but I can't remember the name. My parents were both born there, at the Blair Brothers Hotel. That's exactly it. My mom and dad graduated from Lebanon High School. Since then it closed. I was born in Wilmington, both my brothers. I'm probably third generation in Lebanon. I've got two grandfathers buried in Lebanon Cemetery. My nephew did Ancestry.com and traced our family back to the Revolutionary War. In Jackson County, I have a six or seventh generation grandfather named Enoch Russell who fought in the Revolutionary War. The government gave him property in Jackson County. I've been over there twice recently. I found pictures of the tombstone. A lot of his family was there too. We found 20 more stones with the name Russell. It's real interesting. So we've been in Ohio for at least 100 years.

Well, basically all we did was automotive. We were always out of mind, but when they needed us, they knew where to find us. When we moved over here, getting this complex set up: they bought this from Turtle Creek Township at a great price, modified the building, and got it operational. Today this garage is like an assembly line. The biggest project that we've done in my timeline here is getting this building operational and functional for the county so they can service their vehicles. I think we're doing a good job at it.

Getting this complex setup... this has been a great money saver for the county. It's unique the things that we do in here. Most government agencies don't. These guys on the floor that work for me, they're exceptional, very talented, and they really do good work for the county. They save them thousands of dollars. And the thing about it is a quick turnaround time that they get. So we get on a project and we're constantly building new cars and trucks. So I mean those are other smaller projects, but they weren't nothing big like this. But we just set up two new dump trucks for the water and sewer department. We probably build 10, maybe 15 cars a year for the sheriff's office, which includes South Lebanon and Deerfield. So we're constantly building those. If you want, I'll take you up front, show you a couple cars that are being built. And there's hours and hours of work that go into those cars before they can go out of there. Usually when a patrol car comes in, we have to disassemble it. All the interior goes out on the floor. We install our equipment and then we put it back together, and then it's ready for its tour duty.

Sometimes. Well, a lot we do both. Sometimes we'll go to the vehicle and a lot of times we can get it going and bring it back, or I call a local record company here in town, whoever's prompt and quick and can get the vehicle back to me so we can get the car back on the road. Gotcha.

I know it's been a long time. Well, the thing about it is here at Warren County, you tend... the county tends to vote Republican. So once an elected official is in office, they tend to stay there three to four terms and then they go on to something else or they retire. But we haven't had any Democrats here in 40 years. And it's not a bad thing. But we're operating well. All our bills are paid. Our equipment's good. And life's good.

Well, I've been in the old courthouse several times because there were some different agencies in there down there on the corner, I guess it's Silver Street and East. I've been in there numerous times. I've only been in the sheriff's office, the old one down on Silver Street, one time. And I've been in that old administration building hundreds of times before I got moved up there. So I think what's interesting, when the new jail up on Justice Drive was built, the one that they're getting ready to probably demolish because they went to the new one, my grandmother took us up there for a tour. So I was actually in that building when I was probably seventh or eighth grade. And then I went to work there right after I graduated from high school. So it was kind of interesting. But what was weird the other day, Trevor from facilities came over and got us, and Nolan and I went over there because like I said, we always try to get hand-me-down furniture and shelves and stuff. So we went over to the jail. And now they're in their new jail and I'm walking through the old jail. And I got memories of where people worked and everybody was busy doing their jobs and coming and going and stuff. Now it's all empty like a ghost building. It's like this kind of brings back some memories that are sad because some of those people moved on, they retired, someone passed away. And that's the only thing that kind of gets to me is you miss those people you worked with and you built a relationship with them. And unfortunately we all grow older, and like I have too. So I'm 59 and I've been here 40 years and I've had a wonderful career. This has been an ideal job. It's been close to home. I've enjoyed working on all the cars. And we got a lot of production here. So it's been good.

Well, I don't know about the records department within the sheriff's office. But the garage, the old garage over there actually has a gun range in it, and it also had two rooms for evidence. So the deputies were constantly coming in there and they were training, shooting their guns. And we would be in there working. And there's a forestall range in there and they would be firing their guns. And people would come in and they would do business with us and they would hear these guns going off and they'd almost hit the floor. Okay, and it's like, you're safe, it's in a different room. And we'd have to explain to them what was going on. But they had the evidence room. And they used to store marijuana in there. And it would be in there so long that it would dry out and it would actually take your breath. And the rooms were only about as big as this office. And they'd leave it in there until they got a court order. And once they got a court order, they would have me take a 55-gallon drum and I'd take a torch and I cut the top out of it, take it out behind the garage. And Jack Whitaker was in charge of the patrol horse back in the day, and he's also in charge of destructing the marijuana. But Jack is a deputy sheriff and he's in his uniform. He'd go out back and he would burn for days. They would burn marijuana. We used to burn that out behind the garage. And people would come in and they would try to do business. Today like, what are you guys doing? Well, we're working. What are you doing? And what are you doing? Well, we're working. And we said, why don't you go out back? And then go out back and they see what's going on, they start laughing. But that went on for years. And something else I used to do was really unique. The sheriff's office would take weapons from people and then they get a court order to have them destroyed. And they would bring it out. One day Mark Davis and I cut guns for one day, one solid day. We cut guns up and knives and swords and hatchets. Destroyed that for one whole day. And something else happened that was really funny. They had these gambling machines they used to seize all the time. Once they got the court order to destroy, the deputy would come out and I told Jack, I said, Jack Whitaker, I said there's some coin in that. And he didn't want to fool with it. I said, Jack, there's some coin in that. And he said okay. Well anyway, he had to get a five-gallon bucket because it was full of quarters and it had four hundred dollars worth of quarters. And he had to take it over to the treasury or the auditor's office so they could deposit it in the general fund. So we used to do that kind of stuff all the time too. Oh, I want to say something else interesting. A lot of times when they would seize a car, for our case we would disassemble it for them, you know, so they could take whatever parts they needed and send it out to the crime labs and try to pull stuff, whether it be blood, fingerprints, or stuff like that. Because you got to realize the deputies then, some of them are not mechanically inclined. And you have to figure out how to take a steering wheel off or a door panel and stuff like that. We did that stuff for them all the time.

Actually no. I actually got a charge out of watching them jump a little bit. And I tell them to calm down. But what was neat was that when they were shooting in the gun range, the bullets would be going down the block wall and you can hear them skipping down the wall and then they hit a gun trap at the end which was all metal, which would ring real good when the bullet hit it. But it was four stalls. They qualified all the time. I actually got to shoot with them numerous times. Something else we used to do for them over there, a lot of those guys were gun guys, I don't know, gunsmiths maybe. And I actually got to work on guns and stuff with them because I owned all the tools. I mean I had punches and presses and stuff like that. And we'd actually take guns apart and modify barrels and switch barrels to different calibers and that kind of stuff. And I did that a lot with them too. So I'm mechanically inclined, but I'm not a gunsmith. So it worked good for both of us. Seems to be a jack of all trades that you experienced around here. I've done a lot of different things for the county, yeah.

I have seen people over there doing some metal detecting. That's about basically to the extent. Whether they had permission or not, I don't know because I kind of stayed here taking care of business. Now if they would ask me, I said yes, somebody's over there. But you know, a lot of times I'm sure there's people got permission before they went over there. But something interesting years ago, this is probably 35, maybe a little bit longer, Mary Haven had a bus. So they wanted me to work on the bus. So I put an alternator or something on the bus, no big deal. But when we took it back, we put it up on top of the hill. Well, they didn't tell me where necessarily they needed it parked. So I took it up there, parked it, went inside, gave them the keys, left. Well, some of the kids decided it was time to ride the bus down over the hill. So they flipped the bus into neutral and ran it down the hill. So from that point forward, they said when you bring the vehicle back, it has to go here because they weren't watching the kids all the time and they were riding the bus down over the hill and not running. So they were ornery, but nobody got hurt. Unexpected.

I absolutely love working on the Fords. Ford Motor Company has done more for Warren County than any other car company. They actually come in, sit down where you two are sitting, they talk to me about the cars. They pull information out of me, what works, what can we do better, and all that kind of stuff. They've helped me out over the years. They've given me vouchers which I in turn turn them into the county to knock the price off on cars. I've had the transmission plant down here in Sharonville actually give me transmissions for our vehicles. I was trained in Sharonville on the 470W transmission, which I built hundreds of here in the garage. And I've met some good contacts. Federal Signal helped us out tremendously. All our tires are purchased off a state contract, mostly Goodyear, Michelins. Those people come in here. The Federal Signal people come in here. I've had General Motors in here. They come in, they want to talk to you about the products. And we've had a good mix of mostly Fords and GMs. We have some Dodge Grand Caravans that work good for us at the Veterans Office. And I would say Ford Motor Company has by far been more fleet oriented and I like their product. Like I said, we've been trained here. I actually have access to their website. I can pull whatever information I need on those cars. That's been very valuable here. And that's been good working relationships with them. So something else is neat here. We have a couple armored vehicles. I don't know if you've ever seen them. We have a new one on order. I spec this out. I won't get to see the end product because I'll be retired by then, but it's coming. We have two here now. One's a Ford, one's a GMC. They're unique vehicles. I hope they don't have to use them, but if they have a situation where they need them, they're ready.

Well, a year we do... I can't give you a national number, I'd have to look it up. But I know we do a hundred thousand dollars a year in tires here at the garage. The patrol cars probably get 15 to 25,000 miles on the tires. Now those are pursuit legal tires. They're soft compound, they work good. These new patrol cars are all-wheel drive. They're harder on tires. Tires have actually dictated how we do servicing on the cars. When different cars come and go, like the older cars were two-wheel drive, they weren't as hard on tires as the all-wheel drive cars are because all four wheels and tires. So we do more tire work. But the benefit of that, you know, we're spending more money but we're not wrecking the cars. Okay, they don't spin out. The old Crown Vics were like NASCAR. If they go around the corner, they would spin out and they'd be in a cornfield. We haven't lost... you know, and it was hard for me to switch from a car to an all-wheel. We were calling the Explorers soccer mom vans. Well, believe it or not, they're good, they're great vehicles. The traction, the braking, it's superior to the older cars. But the problem with that, people resist change. But after you change, you look back and say, you know what, we're better off where we're at than where we were. So that's been a big difference.

I have all Fords. All Fords. Okay. Well, my dad's a Ford man, okay, and so I'm second generation Ford. And I enjoy them.

Well, actually I'm going to work part-time at Russell's Auto Repair. So I may be leaving here, but I will still be doing this to a lighter scale because I'm going to cut back a little bit. My body's sore. I've been on the concrete for 40 years. I'm going to go over there. I'm a drag racer. I love racing cars. I'm going to continue to do that and I'm going to do some traveling. And someday hopefully I'll start enjoying my grandchildren, which I don't have any yet, but I'm sure they're going to be on their way. But no, I've had a wonderful career. Really truly enjoyed it. I honestly hate to go. But there's a time for everything. There's a beginning and there's an end. And when this door closes, another one opens. And I'm grateful and thankful for the time that I got to work here.

Well, I've been grooming Nolan for a while and he's going to take it to a new level. You know, I trained him. He's here. His next move is he's going to be the teacher and he's going to work with these people and he's going to get people to do things that he needs done. And he'll oversee the whole operation. He'll have people that build patrol cars, he'll have people that have CDLs and work on big trucks, he'll have line mechanics. There's several. It's like playing baseball. We're all playing ball, but there's all different positions. You got pitcher, catcher, you have first baseman, outfield, shortstops. They all are playing ball, but each position is a little bit different. And you know what we try to do here is let everybody do their specialty, but you got to back up people when they're off. So you got to make sure you cover the bases when something comes up and people are off. So he'll be fine. And he's a great kid, very knowledgeable, and he's going to do well.

This has been a great job. It's close to my home. Now I was offered other jobs at some dealerships and stuff. But I enjoyed working with the people and I built a good relationship with them. And it just... then another thing about it, I've been here 40 years. What went like? It went like that. So I'm going to tell you two something: you're going to be old soon. And enjoy each day one more time because someday you're going to be hobbling around like I am now. But I stayed here. And I honestly didn't think about leaving a lot. I mean, I had offers, I thought, but I was busy working on things. So it just developed. It went from a two-car garage to the facility you're sitting in today. We went from 20, 25 cars to 500. I didn't have really time to think about it. And you know what, over the years they adjusted my salary and they were fair. And I didn't get rich, I'm not poor, and I won't be poor the rest of my life. So I enjoyed this. It's a good place to work. And you come in, do your job, and you work on everybody's car the same, you know, and they will love you. And you know because they need us. And I want our product when it rolls out on the street to say that's a nice vehicle, they're taking care of business.

You know what, every morning I wake up at the same time. I don't have an alarm clock. It goes off, I jump up and get dressed to come to work. That's going to be the hardest thing for me to break because I'm so used to that. And actually, I guess it's just natural. I don't know. I told Nolan, I said once I retire and they turn my badge off, my swipe cards, I said I'm going to come out there and I'm going to be on the outside of the fence with my hands stuck in the fence hollering, 'What are you doing in there?' So no, I just, I've enjoyed this. It went fast. Time goes by fast. I wish it would slow down a bit. But no, this has been great. I'm tickled to death that the different boards of commissioners funded this because I've worked for I don't know how many different commissioners over the years. They own this. I just have operated it. And I come in, do my job, and do what they ask of me. You know, they got to have product out there to do services for the county, for the people. That's what this is. This is for the people. And it saved them thousands and thousands of dollars. They could not sublet this and save money and keep the control on it like they have because we know what we're getting, we know what we got. And you know, there's a lot of people that have automotive problems. They couldn't take them somewhere and get them fixed because they don't know how to explain. You know, they can explain what's going on, but they would have no idea if it was getting fixed correctly. So we're a safety net for them to make sure they're getting what they're paying for. So it's been a wonderful career. I've enjoyed it. And if it wouldn't be for people like you that have vehicles, we wouldn't be needed. So that's pretty much it in a nutshell. And I could tell you all kinds of things, but I don't know where to start. I've seen some really neat things here over the years. And the growth, and watching Justice Drive grow over there. Used to, you know, those were two just grassy areas out there. And then the administration building was there. I was here before the pond was in. The school has moved. They tore the old school down and built one behind it. They've added on the sheriff's office, the old building. They've added on the courthouse several times. In the basement, the courthouse used to be telecom where they dispatch and stuff. I can remember when that basement was open and there was a MASH hospital in there for emergency use. So if there was a disaster, they could operate that MASH hospital over there at the county somewhere. It was complete with tents, medical equipment, and all kinds of stuff. It's like essentially a field hospital. It was open. I remember when it was wide open. And I was at one time or another in all the buildings because everybody had a car and you were going over there and getting their vehicles. And you see this stuff and it was interesting how everything worked.

I really thought about what was amazing beforehand.

Well, I appreciate you coming over. I wish I could pull more stuff off my brains because I've seen a lot of stuff. And I tell you something that's been interesting: some of the cars and stuff that have come in here, they were shot up and stuff. And we had to work with the sheriff's office to build a case that they were working on or something like that. And it's amazing what a bullet will do to a car. So when a bullet hits a car, it fragments and the energy just disperses in all different directions. And when that metal is going through the car, it destroys all kinds of things. So if you ever get a car shot up, just get rid of it. It's not working, it's not worth fixing. So well, you know what, today's cars got a lot of plastic in them. Okay, so once a bullet goes through there and starts hitting the dash and the HVAC system, it's just destroyed. So that's just another tidbit that we did over the years. I used to go to the lake when they patrol up the lake. I've been on the lake patrolling with them in the boat. I've been on call. I would go on calls in the patrol cars. And I quit doing that because I could see that wasn't healthy. So I used to go on calls with them. And I used to be able to walk in and out of the sheriff's office and the jail. I used to go into jail and they would bake cookies in there. We would help the cooks out and they would bake cookies for us. And I had a great relationship with them. So it's been good.

Well, I've enjoyed it tremendously and I'm very thankful and I've had a wonderful career.

No, I don't think so.