President Barack Obama has just wrapped up a visit to the wind turbine manufacturing and Fab Lab facilities at Lorain County Community College and is expected momentarily at the LCCC fieldhouse for his town hall meeting.
When his entourage arrives, Governor Ted Strickland will welcome attendees, and Governor Ted Strickland will welcome attendees.
LCCC student Jody Jasman will introduce Obama. Hasman, 38, has been an electrician for 14 years and was laid off a year ago. She received tution assistance for dislocated workers to attend LCCC through a partnership with the Employment netWork and is a wind turbine technology major.
As the crowd waited in anticipation of Obama’s arrival, CT Managing Editor Julie Wallace noticed some more faces in the crowd — former Common Pleas Court Judge Joe Cirigliano, former state Rep. John Bender, Elyria Law Director Terry “Pete” Shilling and Lorain County Chamber of Commerce Director Frank DeTillio.
Pastor Crucita Marrero, pastor of Mision Cristiana El Faro Discipulos De Cristo (Disciples of Christ) in Lorain, delivered the invocation.
Michael R. Jackson Jr., 37, led the pledge of allegiance. Jackson will graduate in the spring with an associate degree in manufacturing engineering technology from LCCC.
Tobias Duvall, 26, sang the national anthem. Duvall is nearly finished with an associate of arts degree and is also working on associate of business administration degree with a focus on entrepreneurship at LCCC.
Obama just toured the college’s wind turbine manufacturing and Fab Lab facilities.
The first associate degree credit program in Ohio in the field of wind turbine power generation began in the fall at Lorain County Community College, and is funded by federal stimulus money.
During the tour he talked to students about their projects, according to Bob Nemeth of Amherst, a former auto worker, who said he got to shake the president’s hand.
Along the tour there were approximately 33 students — 13 students in the wind turbine production area and 20 students in the Fab Lab. LCCC President Roy Church will lead the wind turbine tour, and Kelly Zelesnik, dean of the Engineering Technologies Division, will lead the Fab Lab tour.
According to CT reporter Brad Dicken, who is riding along with the president’s motorcade, Church missed his bus in the motorcade and had to walk across campus to the fieldhouse.
Security is strict on campus, and those who missed getting into the college and were trying to do so not long before 1 p.m. were out of luck. They weren’t allowed to drive in, nor were they allowed to walk in. So how hefty is the security team? More than anyone can count from the inside, that’s for sure. Tom Kelley, director of Lorain County Emergency Management Agency, helped coordinate the local security efforts to backdrop what’s provided by the Secret Service.
“We knew last Thursday the president was coming,” Kelley said. “It’s a logistical nightmare, but there’s been alot of good cooperation. we’ve met everyday since last Thursday”
The crew includes six or seven agencies on the Emergency Medical Services detail, the Lorain County HAZMAT team, the sheriff’s SWAT team, Lorain Auxiliary police, and a number of other departments, too.
Check back at Chroniclet.com all day long for updates at they become available.
