News : Severtsgaard retires after 33 years with Vinton Police Department

Mike and Phyllis Severtsgaard received congratulations from many at his retirement celebration.

Mike Severtsgaard and his wife, Phyllis, greeted scores of people on Friday as they looked back on his more than three decades as a Vinton policeman and looked forward to retirement.

Mike worked at Hawk-Bilt for many years before making the career change had had long dreamed of in the early 1980s.

During the celebration, Mike and Phyllis shared some of their memories of the past 30+ years and discussed Mike’s approach to police work and the changes he has observed over the years.

“He always treated people with respect,” said Phyllis. “He always kept his credibility.”

“People deserve respect, even when they have made a mistake,” Mike said.

One morning, at a grocery store, a man walked up to Mike, who recognized him as a man he had arrested for drunk driving the previous night. Mike was a bit nervous as he approached, wondering what he would say.

“He said, ‘Man, I was stupid last night,’” Mike recalls. He replied by telling that guy that if he had not behaved in that manner, he would not have gone to jail.

Mike and Phyllis have two children, Jay Severtsgaard and Amy Salger, and four grandchildren.

Amy and her family attended the event, and along with Phyllis, shared one of the funny stories from Mike’s early days.

One evening, while Mike was on patrol, Phyllis noticed that there was a cookie on the tray with one bite taken out of it.

Amy recalls how on that day, Phyllis had said the children had been misbehaving and arguing. She saw the cookie and the kids were in more trouble.

“We had been planning to go out that night, and we almost didn’t get to go because of that cookie,” Amy said.

The next morning, Mike confessed that he was the guilty party.

Not all of a policeman’s stories are that funny, of course.

Phyllis recalls her most nervous night. She had heard that there had been an incident with a man with a gun, and tried several times to call Mike, but couldn’t get through. She feared the worst until hearing Mike was all right.

“That man was determined to kill somebody,” she recalled. “Fortunately, Mike was able to knock the gun away.”

Mike, too, remembers that night, and how he almost had to use his firearm.

“It’s one of those times when you have four pounds of pressure on a six-pound trigger,” he recalls.

That was the incident that Mike remembers as one of his most nervous moments.

Times have changed; Mike is not a fan of cell phones and social media. Sometimes, when a young person is getting arrested, he will contact his parents, who show up to interfere with officers, Mike said.

Mandatory retirement age

Mike will turn 66 in April; the mandatory retirement age for police officers in Iowa used to be 65, but because of changes to Social Security, that has been extended to 65 years and 11 months.

Although Mike worked as long as he could, he said that he is ready to retire.

“I am not sure I can still chase the 16-year-olds,” he said.

Will continue as ref

Don Lyle, a V-S coach, heard Mike make that comment and responded by telling Mike that he still seems to be doing a good job of chasing those teens up and down the football field as a referee.

And although Mike has retired from the police force, he will continue to wear another uniform and blow another whistle as he enforces the rules: He is a middle school and high school football referee and also officiates some middle school basketball games.

He and Phyllis have no specific plans for retirement, although Mike plans to continue some home improvement projects (he enjoys creating unique woodwork patterns) and of course, fishing.