Officer Ron Noon to retire after 25 years

Officer Ron Noon has been on the Wadena Police Department 25 years, and now he is retiring.

Noon's last scheduled shift was Thursday, and he is on the payroll and subject to call until Aug. 25, after which he is officially retired. His resignation was accepted at the Aug. 15 city council meeting.

"I have mixed feelings because I've thoroughly enjoyed being part of the department and the community, being able to help people," he said. "You have to know the people you work for and understand what their situations are in order to make good judgment calls."

Noon started his career in 1986 with the Granite Falls Police Department, then moved on to accept a Wadena opening. He moved his family and started in September 1987. Joyce Kopp was the Wadena police chief at the time.

Noon, who has been with the municipal police longer than anyone else, recalled some of the memorable events the department dealt with throughout the last quarter of a century.

A few weeks after he started, in November 1987, 23-year-old Carla Beth Anderson was reported missing and suspected to have been kidnapped. Nearly 25 years later, the case is still unsolved.

"I talked to her two days before she disappeared," Noon said. "Her disappearance was one of the more memorable experiences - the searches that we did."

The great thermal underwear controversy of 1995 was a lighthearted moment in the police department's history.

Noon said the police department had a clothing allowance, and winters in the 1990s were extremely cold. An officer submitted a bill for long underwear, but the city council rejected it.

"It hit the Associated Press," Noon said. "The Northfield Bakery sent a box of long johns up to the city of Wadena."

Another memorable time took place in 1996, when the police department dealt with a murder. A woman on Irving Avenue was strangled by her estranged husband.

"We found her in the basement," Noon said.

Another crucial moment for the police department was in 2005 when Officer Pete Resch died in the line of duty. He had a heart attack after responding to a domestic incident.

"Pete was a great officer and a good friend," Noon said. "That was a changing point in a lot of our lives."

The tornado of June 17, 2010 also was a huge event for the police department.

Noon said society has changed a lot since he started, with more technology, less crime and an older population.

He said the 1980s and 1990s had more chases and standoffs, and sometimes it felt like the Old West.

"People were a little wilder around this area," he said. "And the laws aren't what they are now."

Noon said the police department is in transition, with newer officers starting and older ones retiring.

"When I first came here, Ron was about where I'm at," said Sgt. Investigator Naomi Plautz, who started in the late 1990s.

With Noon retiring, the police department and city council are to decide on a new hire in upcoming weeks.

New officer Joshua Winter was hired a few weeks ago for Plautz's former position, after she was promoted to the retiring Sgt. Investigator Tom Crawford's job.

"We worked, what, two shifts together?" Winter said to Noon as the latter was looking at packed boxes in the police station Aug. 8.

Noon, who described police work as "90 percent bored" and "10 percent terror," said he has enjoyed working with all the people in the department.