Board of Works doubles its pleasure, hires pair of new city police officers

In what may be a first for the Greencastle Board of Works, its members Wednesday interviewed two candidates for a City Police Department opening and ended up extending employment offers to both men.

During its regular monthly session, the board interviewed Chris Helmer and Damon Ludwig for the position open since GPD Assistant Chief Brian Hopkins resigned to go elsewhere.

One of the best things about their candidacies is that both men have already been through the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy. Not only will that save the city the money to send them there for training but also means the department won’t lose them for 16 weeks, as Chief Tom Sutherlin pointed out.

Helmer, 36-year-old son of former Putnam County Sheriff and longtime deputy Tom Helmer, was the No. 1 choice of both the GPD Board of Captains and Board of Works members Bill Dory, Trudy Selvia and Craig Tuggle.

However, the 32-year-old Ludwig, an officer with the DePauw University Police, was a close second all around. That sparked the board, noting that Chief Sutherlin’s last day before moving onto the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department as chief deputy under Sheriff Jerrod Baugh will be Dec . 15, to extend an offer to Ludwig for city employment to commence on that date.

Both men brought fine credentials to the table. Helmer is actually a former GPD officer, serving 2006-2010, or as he remembered it, back when city officers used paper tablets in their squad cars, not the computers they have today.

Helmer returns to GPD after stints with the Owen County Sheriff’s Department and Boone County Sheriff’s Department and seven years with the Speedway Police Department.

Ludwig, a 2008 North Putnam High School graduate, became seriously interested in law enforcement while taking GPD Capt. Charles Inman’s Area 30 Career Center law enforcement classes.

He graduated from Vincennes University in 2010 with an associate’s degree in law enforcement and served as a Greencastle reserve officer from 2018-2020 when he transitioned into his role at DePauw.

Ludwig, who has had management experience at the Marsh store in Plainfield and the Greencastle Walmart, urged more public relations for the department.

“There’s never enough PR,” he said, suggesting that GPD reach out to the community for involvement in more events like this week’s FOP Shop With a Cop event and last week’s Police Boot Camp at Robe-Ann Park, both of which he attended.

Prior to the decision, Chief Sutherlin noted that seven candidates were interviewed by the Board of Captains in getting to this juncture in the hiring process. Helmer was No. 1 “on everyone’s list,” he said, with Ludwig listed No. 2 for all those same people.

With new assistant chief and chief appointments looming in the future, Sutherlin suggested that the situation currently presents itself as “a great opportunity for a lot of people to get promotions.”

In other business, the Board of Works:

-- Made a motion to move forward with a Duke Energy project to change city street lights to LED lighting. The change is expected to result in a cost savings to the city of $816,000 over 25 years. Duke will now do a survey and return with a formal proposal covering at least 666 city street lights. Mayor Dory noted that the survey may provide an option for the city to add more lights in areas of need.

-- Received specifications from Fire Chief John Burgess regarding the planned replacement of a 2001 firetruck with a purchase within the coming year. A “ballpark figure” of $750,000 is seen as the purchase price with an $80,000-$100,000 savings seen since there is no need for a light tower, generator or extra storage areas, Burgess said. The truck would have a 1,000-gallon water tank and a five-man cab, which is “not much different than we have,” said Burgess, who expects a price increase Sept. 1. A 24-month build time is expected once the contract for purchase is finalized.

-- Approved purchase of a hydro excavation vacuum trailer unit with valve exerciser for the Water and Wastewater departments. The low bid of $64,350 from Lewis Municipal Sales, Carmel, was approved on a VAC300G with Spin Doctor 800. Funding will come from Capital Projects, Clerk-Treasurer Lynda Dunbar noted.

The Board of Works will next meet in regular session at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 17 at City Hall.