by Dennis Dalman
Three Reserve Volunteer officers were honored by Sartell Police Chief Jim Hughes and given plaques of appreciation at the March 9 city-council meeting.
The three honored are Todd Ackerman, Shane Cuperus and Chris Dahlman.
The three are among the nine Reserve officers on the Sartell department who work many hundreds of hours without pay year after year in such tasks as parking control at city events, ridealongs with police officers and virtually any other tasks that might come up when all the on-duty officers are busy.
Last year, their volunteer duties were the equivalent of $72,000 worth of expenses the city did not have to pay because the Reserve officers do all of their work without pay.
“I couldn’t run the department without you guys,” Hughes told them, adding they do their work diligently without pay and often without any recognition at all.
Ackerman has given 11 years of duty as a Reserve officer in Sartell, Cuperus seven years and Dahlman five years.
The council members congratulated the Reserve officers, shook their hands, and Mayor Sarah Jane Nicoll told them how grateful the city is for their hard work, which amounted to 2,960 volunteer hours last year.