Sgt. John Kuehl was honored by the Porter County Board of Commissioners Tuesday morning for 48 total years of service as a county employee, mostly in law enforcement. Porter County Sheriff Jeff Balon presented him with an award for the past 12 years he served at the Porter County Jail.
Balon reminisced about how he looked up to Kuehl as a teenager during Kuehl’s 32-year career in the Patrol Division of the Porter County Sheriff’s Office. He told Kuehl he would illegally drive a three-wheeler past Kuehl’s driveway and see the squad car parked there, thinking, “Man, it’d be cool to have that car in my driveway.”
“What I saw from you is how proud you were to be a police officer,” Balon told Kuehl. “You always stayed positive. You always took pride in the uniform.”
Before joining the patrol division Kuehl also worked for the Porter County Highway Department following his service in the U.S. Army.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, two regular attendees pressed the board to consider adding at least an occasional evening meeting to accommodate residents with day jobs. Historically, the board has met at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday, but last year the body also held one 5:30 Monday evening meeting per month.
When formalizing the 2024 meeting calendar at the end of last year the evening meetings were dropped. “I would really appreciate, myself and others who work, to have an evening meeting,” said Dawn Miller, a Valparaiso resident and regular attendee who is also running for election to a County Council at-large seat.
“Our attendance during the day is much better than it was during the evening,” Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R-North, replied, adding that it’s a strain on staff who must attend in the evening, as well as the payroll budget since overtime has to be paid to accommodate them.
Miller pointed out that this doesn’t stop the county council from holding its meetings in the evening. She was echoed by Valparaiso resident Penny Kuzmich, also a regular attendee, who said even an evening meeting quarterly would be helpful.
“I don’t think it’s just about information,” Kuzmich said in response to an offer from Biggs to get Miller any information she needed from morning meetings she might miss due to work. “The first meeting that Robyn (Lane) and I came to, we were kind of flabbergasted that public comment could make a difference,” she added about her feeling that public comment shaped the way the county distributed American Rescue Plan Act grant money.
She also pointed out that the county’s live stream of meetings is not user-friendly.
“I’m not surprised,” Biggs replied. “It works one week, it doesn’t the next.” He said he would consult with the other two commissioners about attempting an occasional evening meeting.
In other business, the Porter County Highway Department announced it will be accepting bids for 2024 bituminous at the auditor’s office through April 1. Bids will be opened and awarded at the April 2 Board of Commissioners meeting.
The board approved the highway department entering into a five-year lease of five dump trucks for $1.5 million. “They’re not getting any cheaper, are they, Jim?” Biggs said to Highway Department Superintendent Jim Polarek.
“The last batch we bought were $230,000 a piece and these are just over $300,000 a piece,” Polarek replied.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
