Dassel man gets Minnesota Reserve Deputy of the Year award

By Roz Kohls
Staff Writer

Meeker County Reserve Deputy Dean Schmitz of Dassel was selected Minnesota Reserve Deputy of the Year by the Minnesota Police Reserve Officers Association of Plymouth recently.

Meeker County Sheriff Mike Hirman and Deputy Jon Thoma presented a plaque to Schmitz at the Meeker County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday.

Schmitz volunteered 700 hours in 2006, Hirman said.

“Reserve Schmitz has shown outstanding dedication and devotion to the Meeker County Sheriff’s Office Reserves,” said Deputy Reggie Sandstrom in his letter nominating Schmitz for the state award.

“The call that prompted me to nominate Reserve Schmitz was a very stressful call. The Meeker County Sheriff’s Office responded to a welfare check that ended up being a shots-fired call. Reserve Schmitz handled himself in a professional manner and assisted in keeping the general public out of the area,” Sandstrom said.

Sandstrom said Schmitz also performed CPR, and assisted a deputy in taking two suspects into custody during a physical confrontation in another incident.

Odds and ends

In other law enforcement business, the county board:

• hired Joe Engler, a Litchfield police officer, to be a Meeker County Sheriff’s deputy sergeant.

• hired Tessa Angier of Litchfield, Dan Rueckert of Grove City, and Judy Revier of Olivia to be part-time jailers.

• directed Meeker County Attorney Stephanie Beckman to formulate a process on how to sell county-owned property from the sheriff’s office on eBay. The sheriff’s office already can sell forfeited property electronically.