DOWAGIAC — Dowagiac’s public service workers can often be found working on the scene of a crime, putting out a raging fire or comforting the victim of a crime. While the work they do is glamorized on television and in movies, officers said much the work they do in reality is backstage and behind the scenes, which is why Dowagiac’s forces recognized two of their own earlier this month.

Recently, the city of Dowagiac named its 2018 Police Officer and Firefighter of the Year at an awards banquet hosted at the Timberline Inn in Dowagiac and sponsored by Wolverine Mutual Insurance. At the dinner, Dave Dragomir was named the 2018 Dowagiac Firefighter of the Year, and Jason Rutkowske was named the 2018 Dowagiac Police Officer of the Year. Both Dragomir and Rutkowske were chosen by a vote of their peers.

“They are chosen by the ones they work with, the ones they are side by side with,” said Steve Grinnewald, Dowagiac’s Director of Public Safety.  “I am very proud of them and all of the officers and firefighters.”

Firefighter of the Year

After 30 years of fighting fires, Dave Dragomir, 58, of Decatur, knows to expect the unexpected — to assume that a situation can change at any moment and that he will need to think on his feet, knowing that his decisions can save a home or a life.

“I’ve come to realize anything can happen,” he said lounging at a small table inside the Dowagiac Fire station. “Sometimes the simplest things can be very difficult, and the most difficult things can end up being very simple.”

Despite his decades of experience in learning to prepare for any outcome, there is one thing he said he could never have expected: being named Dowagiac’s 2018 Firefighter of the Year after only one year working with the department.

“It was very overwhelming,” he said of the honor. “To be chosen when there are many other people who can be chosen is an honor. I don’t take it lightly. I appreciate the guys selecting me. … All the attention has caught me off guard. The fact that I have only been here a year really caught me off guard.”

While Dragomir may have been surprised by the award, few in the Dowagiac Fire Department were, said Deputy Fire Chief Robert Smith, adding that Dragomir won the vote by an overwhelming majority.

“Dave exemplifies what we are looking for in a firefighter. He shows up, asks what needs to be done and he helps get it done. That’s more than I can ask of anyone,” Smith said. “He is just a good common sense guy. He doesn’t glamorize a lot of stuff. He takes a direct approach, and is always willing to help.”

This is not the first time Dragomir has been named a firefighter of the year. He was named Lawrence, Michigan’s Firefighter of the Year in the late 1990s. Though winning a firefighter of the year award is not a new experience for him, Dragomir said the award was an honor that caused him to reflect on the past year with the Dowagiac Fire Department, one of the best of his career.

The one fire that sticks out to him the most was the fire that took place at Ameriwood in late January. The fire was massive, resulting from a heating system explosion. It took hours to put out and closed the facility for days.

Dragomir can still remember the way the heat from the flames felt against his skin, and the way adrenaline kept him going for hours as hauled heavy equipment and worked with many other firefighters to put out the blaze. However, what he remembers most is the cold that came once the fire died down and he was left to continue working in freezing temperatures.

“The Ameriwood fire was definitely the fire of the year, and for me, maybe the fire of the century,” Dragomir said. “That sticks out in my mind of being the most strenuous and the worst elements. It was very cold. Usually, when the flames are going, and your adrenaline is going, you are not cold. But when the flames die down, there is still work to be done, and that is when you start getting cold.”

Though that night was strenuous, as are many calls that the Dowagiac Fire Department goes on, Dragomir said being a firefighter is worth it to “watch the flames die” and know that he is helping others and protecting the community,

“Any time you can save anything, that is a good feeling,” he said. “I love being a firefighter, and my intention is to keep doing it as long as I am physically able.”

Police Officer of the Year

2018 was a big year for Dowagiac Police Officer and Cass County Drug Enforcement Team detective Jason Rutkowske. For the 32-year-old Dowagiac resident, the year saw a higher caseload than ever before and the first homicide case he has ever led, the murder of Fabian Wesaw which took place in the early hours of July 29 on Beeson Street in Dowagiac.

Rutkowke remembers getting the call in the middle of the night and arriving on the scene less than a half an hour after the shooting to collect evidence and prepare to interview the suspect, Rolandis Russell.

“There was a magnitude to that case,” Rutkowske said. “A lot of the work we do, we are going into someone’s worst day, so we have to treat everything as important because it is important to them, but there was a magnitude to [the murder case], and I’m very proud of the work we did there.”

Though 2018 might have been a year of severe cases for Rutkowske, the work he did on those cases earned him the respect of his fellow officers and the title of 2018 Officer of the Year, according to Director of Public Safety Steve Grinnewald, who said that an officer of the year should inspire fellow officers and serve the community well.

“He has really come into his own this past year,” Grinnewald said of Rutkowske. “He has shown a lot of leadership abilities. He has kind of become our go-to person on complex cases. He has set the example for everyone.”

For his part, Rutkowske said he was surprised and happy to be named the officer of the year.

“It feels very good, very humbling,” he said. “It’s a great honor.”

A Niles native, Rutkowske said he fell in love with police work while he was senior at Niles High School and has been honored to be involved in local departments since he graduated from Western Michigan University. Though he said he finds most aspects of police work rewarding, he personally feels that when people come up to him, thank him and tell him that he made a difference in their lives to be one of the best reminders about why he does what he does.

“There is a very big opioid crisis here in Cass County, and Methamphetamine is everywhere,” Rutkowske said. “People are ruining their lives, and it is nice to see that even if you have to arrest someone to get them off the drug, to see them in two years, five years [and] have them say, ‘if you hadn’t arrested me, I probably would have died.’ … That is what keeps you coming back even when we go through all the bad stuff that we do.”

As he goes forward, Rutkowske said he plans to continue to serving Dowagiac and Cass County through police work.

“[Being a police officer] is one of the most rewarding things you can do,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else. The community here is great.”