SEQUIM –– Half the sergeants on the city’s police force will be new next month after internal promotions fill vacancies left by the retirement of two sergeants.
Sgt. Ken Almberg retired from the force Saturday. Sgt. Don Reidel retired July 31.
Chief Bill Dickinson plans to fill the sergeants’ posts with officers already on the force.
Almberg has spent most of the past eight years of his 42-year law enforcement career on the Sequim force.
His Sequim duty started after he left the position of chief at the Seaside, Ore., Police Department, where he served for 10 years and retired as lieutenant commander of the United States Coast Guard Reserve.
His main work with the Sequim Police Department has been focused on creating measures aimed at eliminating highway fatalities.
Reidel began his work with the Sequim Police Department as a patrol officer in 2005 after working as a patrol deputy for the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office and a corrections officer for the Department of Corrections. He was promoted to sergeant in 2007.
Reidel leaves Sequim to take a post as an officer for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veterans Hospital in Helena, Mont.
City officials said Almberg will remain in Sequim.