TWO RIVERS, Wis. (NBC 26) — After 34 years of work in law enforcement, Two Rivers Police Chief Brian Kohlmeier announced his retirement.
"You obviously look forward to retiring, but then I also will miss the career," he said. "I'll miss the type of work. I'll miss all the people here"
Kohlmeier started as a part-time reserve deputy at the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Office when he was 19.
He was hired full-time at Two Rivers in 1991 and spent about three years as the chief.
"Part of it is I have grandchildren and want to spend a lot of time with grandchildren," Kohlmeier said. "It is generally a normal retirement age for law enforcement."
At 53 years old, he says he has no regrets.
"It's time for other people to move up into my position and create other movement and advancements for others in the agency," Kohlmeier said.
The person moving into his position is Assistant Chief Ben Meinnert, who has spent 23 years in law enforcement at several departments.
"I'll never forget — and we joke about — sitting on my couch when he came to do a background and talking about exactly getting to this point," he said.
Meinnert has been in Two Rivers for eight years and looks at Kohlmeier as a mentor.
"We also joked about how long I might be here before maybe going to another department," Meinnert said. "And at that time, I told him 'maybe 10-plus years because I'd like to finish here.' ... We have a lot of young, just positivity here that I've never seen in my whole career."
Dec. 22 marks the end of the current chief's career, and Meinnert takes over the same day.
Both say they're thankful to the community.
"We've always been kind of on that leading edge, and I've always been proud of that as well," Kohlmeier said. "And that's a legacy... that wasn't necessarily started by me. [It was] started by many past administrations, and I'd like to think that I carried that forward."
