March 9, 2023 – Washington Co., WI – Special deputy Charles Nehm finally decided to call it a career after 50 years on duty at the Washington County Sheriff’s Department.
“I’m 81 years old,” said Nehm. “I think it’s time.”
Nehm started working as a special deputy in 1972. His beat was mostly weekends, providing security at events at Zivko’s Ballroom, summer picnics and Hartford High School ball games.
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“I also worked 10 years with the Village of Slinger,” said Nehm. “I had a lot of nights where I came home Friday, ate supper, jump into a brown uniform and worked the high school football games, basketball games and that type thing. I’d then change clothes and go to work for Slinger for four, five, or six hours.”
Questioned if Nehm had any memorable experiences and he shrugged. “It’s like everything else, you keep it under control. You don’t have any problems.
“I worked Zivko’s a lot. About every six months we’d have a fight. We’d haul somebody to jail and that was the end of it.”
Nehm said he liked the school dances when they played music from the 50’s. “Most famous person I came across was when Ricky Nelson was at Zivko’s and we had Chubby Checker (April 5, 1986) out there,” he said.
Over the years Nehm worked for seven Sheriffs including Clarence Schwartz, Bob Schulteis, Jack Theusch, Brian Rahn, Dale Schmidt, and Martin Schulteis.
Nehm said it was his uncle who introduced him to law enforcement. “We went to a meeting one night and the Sheriff came in and said he needed special deputies. I got sworn in the next morning and I’ve been with them ever since,” he said.
A graduate of Hartford High School, Nehm joined the Army National Guard in 1959. “I spent six months on active duty and then another year after that,” he said.
Nehm recalled getting stationed in Fort Lewis, Washington for a year during the Berlin crisis. “They took a special Army unit out of Fort Lewis, Washington, and shipped them to Germany, so they would patrol overseas. They called us up to replace them,” he said.
Married with two children, Nehm and his wife settled in Slinger. Nehm worked full time remodeling grocery stores, including George Prescott’s Pick ‘n Saves.
“I remodeled a couple of George’s stores,” he said. “My job was to go in and lay out all the groceries, the frozen food and dairy department. I would layout the whole store then I would get people to come in and set up all the sections.
Nehm recalled the Shop Rite store on S. Main Street before it became Pick ‘n Save. “There was a ramp and that store at one time had different heights in the floor,” he said. “It also had a VHS video department and coffee bars were big at one time.”
Nehm also remembered the seating area overlooking the produce section just passed the customer service where you could drop off your We Energies bill or your AT&T phone bill.
“I don’t know if George paid for it, but you could just drop it in a slot with no postage and they would turn it all in for you,” said Nehm. “I didn’t see George all the time; I could be busy and wouldn’t get a chance to talk to him. But if there was something he needed, he’d find me, and then we talked.”
About a dozen friends and family turned out Wednesday night as Nehm was recognized by the Washington County Board for his 50 years of loyal service.
Returning to the courthouse brought back memories of when the upper parking lot was for squad cars. “You went into the building, then and that was the dispatch and the office center and then up above that was the jail and there was a street between them,” said Nehm.
The squads were also different. “We had a red light and a radio and that’s about it,” he said. “If I remember correctly, some of them were old Pontiacs.”
As far as the uniform was concerned, Nehm said brown wore the same as blue. “You got so much weight hanging on your hips every day that every time you put that uniform on, you gained 25 pounds.”
Nehm also remembered the eight-point cap. “We also had a summer hat; it was straw in the summer and felt in the winter,” he said.
Questioned why he liked the job so much, Nehm simply said it was “interesting.”
“I was making good money on the other side. I didn’t want to go full time. I just liked it.”
Photos courtesy Greg Lofy/ASP Images
