BERRIEN COUNTY COMMISSION UPDATE

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent

ST. JOSEPH – Berrien County Commissioners gathered last week in a special meeting to honor one of the county’s most well-known law enforcement officers. Forrest “Nick” Jewell served as the Berrien County Sheriff for over two decades before his retirement in 1991.

Berrien County Trial Judge Dennis Wiley, who is retiring this year, was the first speaker to eulogize Jewell. Wiley said he knew Jewell well during his years in the Berrien County Prosecutor’s Office.

“Nick was a sheriff’s sheriff and a cop’s cop,” Judge Wiley said. “… First of all, he stood for the law, the community and the men and women in uniform. His men loved him because he stood for them. He stood for the people of the community, we should be grateful to have had him in our midst.”

Wiley said there was always a running debate between Jewell and the county prosecutor as to who was the county’s chief law enforcement officer. “Prosecutors would say they were by statute and he’d say he was,” he said. “I said guess what, the prosecutor gets the last word as to who is charged. He groused a little but we all had a great relationship.”

The entire focus of last week’s county board meeting, which is available on the county’s YouTube page, was the life of Sheriff Jewell. A native of Benton Harbor, he served as Berrien County Sheriff from 1969 to 1991. In all, he served 36 years in law enforcement.

Jewell died in mid-May at the age of 92. The resolution passed by the county board in May noted that “beyond the badge, he was a dedicated family man, dedicated to his Church and dedicated to his community.”

“The man who will forever be known as Sheriff Jewell passed away over the weekend, leaving behind a legacy that will live on in his family and the law enforcement community forever,” the resolution went on to state.

County Board Chairman McKinley Elliott oversaw last week’s tribute to Jewell, reading not only the resolution approved last month but a new resolution honoring Jewell. The new resolution names the county’s Emergency Operations Center in the Sheriff’s Department’s Emergency Operation Center Homeland Security Division after Jewell.

County Administrator Brian Dissette noted that the plaque memorializing that will be placed at the current EOC site on Empire Avenue in Benton Harbor and will be placed at any new EOC location. He informed county commissioners that work is wrapping up on moving the EOC to Buchanan in the next few years.

“We’re in the final stages of a buy/sell agreement with AEP (American Electric Power) to move the 911 center there to the AEP building on Circle Drive in Buchanan,” he said. “We hope to have it up and running in the next two years.”

Dissette said the new Buchanan site will have offices including a conference room as well as a new 911 communications tower to improve emergency services radio communications along the state line as well as the rest of Berrien County.

The new location for the Emergency Operations Center in Buchanan would be one that Jewell would approve of, as he stressed the importance of better serving the south county during his tenure.

Jewell’s accomplishments include opening a substation in the south county, re-establishing the junior deputy program, securing a lie detector for the department, adding a chief position to the detective division, working to prevent the loss of officers to the private sector and arranging for extended training for officers.

Others shared their memories of Jewell, including representatives of U.S. Rep. Fred Upton and State Sen. Kim LaSata. Retired Van Buren County Sheriff Dale Gribler was also on hand to pay tribute and thank the board for their support of Jewell over the years which often helped out his own county.

Retired Berrien County Family Independence Agency Director Jerry Frank said Jewell was always supportive of his efforts to help poor families in the county. “He was always available to people,” he said.

Commissioners Dave Vollrath and James Martin shared their memories. Vollrath said he knew Jewell most of his life as Jewell and his mother grew up together. “He always showed respect to everybody he met and always received respect from everybody,” Martin said. “There are not too many people like him around.”

Elliott shared his memory of an incident at the St. Joseph Courthouse in early 1991 when he and Jewell were meeting with Judge Ron Taylor. As they waited for an elevator, Jewell saw some deputies struggling with an inmate and immediately stepped in to help. “That was par for the course, if he saw something happening he didn’t blink on getting involved,” he said.

The county board’s next meeting is a night meeting next Thursday at 6 p.m. in Three Oaks at Froehlich’s Event Center, 19 N. Elm St. The board’s regular schedule resumes July 14 with committee of the whole, committee and county board meetings starting at 8:35 a.m. at the Administration Center in St. Joseph.

The July 7 meeting will not be on YouTube.