TIMES UNION REPORTS – After 13 years as the Kosciusko County veterans service officer, Rich Maron is stepping away.
While presenting his department’s proposed 2022 budget to the Kosciusko County Council Thursday, Maron told them, “I don’t know if you’ve been made aware or not, but I’ve put in my 30-day notice.”
He said he has no complaints about the job.
“I’ve loved it with all my heart what I’ve done these last 13 years. I appreciate the committees and everybody involved that has allowed me to continue and trust in me to keep doing it,” he said, calling his departure “bittersweet.”
Maron said he’s got a lot of stuff to do, all of his children have moved to Florida and his life was changing.
“But I want you to know I’m very grateful for the honor to be able to serve the last 13 years. It’s been a real privilege,” he said.
Councilman Ernie Wiggins told him, “Thank you for your service. It’s appreciated. We’ll miss you.”
After the Council approved his budget, Maron made another announcement.
“I’m excited to announce this. The VA has created a position called the District veterans service officer. So there’s a guy that was a veterans service officer for many years now … who now oversees all the counties in our district – Allen, Whitley, Elkhart.”
Maron said when a county gets a new veterans service officer, the district officer will come in for free for six weeks and train the new county officer.
“I had three days,” Maron said, adding he probably called the former county officer 3,000 times. “I just want to say that’s good news for our county that we’re going to have a really, really well-trained certified VSO come in and train the next guy to make sure he knows what he’s doing.”
Emergency Management Director Ed Rock let the Council know his retirement may be coming soon.
“I would like to say that, my wife just retired. So, I want to put it in front of you that, I’m not here forever. And you can hire someone else to just take over and do things however they want to do them, or somewhere along the lines we need to start thinking about pulling somebody in to understand how we operate in the current environment. If you’re not satisfied with the current environment, then, yeah, hire somebody and let them run their own game. Just a thought to throw out in front of you,” he said.
When asked if he had any ideas of anyone who has shown interest in his position, Rock replied that he had.
“That person has just taken a different position, but there is somebody that I think would do a good job. Unfortunately, I’m afraid they would do push you guys more than I do, but there’s nothing wrong with that either,” Rock said.
If the county actually brought someone in to train them under Rock first and made them a deputy director, Rock said the county could get 50% of their wage back from the state. “That would probably be the logical way of doing that,” he said, acknowledging there would be other fringe benefits to go along with that.
Asked when he was retiring, Rock said, “I don’t know.”
“When did (your wife) say?” Councilman Mike Long joked.
“Whenever she said, yes,” Rock replied.
He and his wife have been married 44 years.
Councilwoman Sue Ann Mitchell shared some news about Highway Superintendent Steve Moriarty. She said, “Steve also shared he was asked to be on the board for the (Indiana Association of County Highway Engineers and Supervisors).”
Moriarty said they asked him if he would put in for that seat, which he said he definitely would do to represent Kosciusko County.
“I’m also on the legislative team for IACHES to represent our county and all the counties in the state to lobby support for House Bills and such,” he said. “… I was very honored.”
They meet every two weeks.
