partner mr schober and that was interesting or we're not going to try to hit some of the same because we have already talked about those but for yourself let's do a little bit of your history what did you do where do you where you from interest in how the court system worked how the political system worked in the county and the opportunity came i got close to retirement age opportunity came to run for sheriff and i did run and i was successful and it was a great experience to do that it was a chance to go another level in law enforcement while you were there was seven eight years i was there for six years or six years the county sheriff and it was a great experience we made a lot of changes there we brought the sheriff's office into the modern day technology and did a lot of things and it was a rewarding experience well that's what i'm going to sort of hedge my my bed here on asking you what kind of issues did you feel there were important enough to actually spend your time effort energies and funds to try to train that see well when i was as i had said i was a state policeman i worked in this area and there was at that time there was some issues in the sheriff's office there was some problems and being a police officer working in that system i knew what those problems were and i thought you know what i wanted to give it a try that the democratic process of running for office kind piqued my interest i was able to retire from the state police and  decided to make a run at and i thought there were just some things that i wanted to professionalize department i wanted to bring it up to modern technology it didn't have a good reputation at that point and in southwestern pennsylvania so what we did i brought team in with me some former state troopers that i had worked with we came in and made a lot of changes and made a very we thought a very reputable department which it still continues to be today whenever you came in how many people work at the sheriff's office well that time we had about twenty two people working there and we asked to have new hiring procedures we actually mirrored the state police process and i wonder why  and we actually increased the department up to thirty three people and we sent people to school we really changed a lot quicker as i said we increased technology increased our duties and i think we made a good department and i'm very proud of it and it continues to be like that today how many folks work in the share of i don't know if you know those figures knol i do because well actually we've increased equipment and i'd like to think that i started that gave a pretty good basis where to spring from a lot of policies and procedures that we used and and yes a lot of this came from the state police still in effect they're still using those  versus after a couple years i realized that i need to get on with my life's work and i joined the marine corps and after going to the marine corps i actually went back to school but i was a radio operator in the marine corps i served several places i was fortunate i wasn't in harms way but i was a radio operator in infantry unit and it was an exciting couple years well having served in the service we have me and my wife we have four children we've got three grandchildren now and i'm just simple we've got one it's for one it's three and one it's two and that takes up a lot of our time now and you know what they say about grandchildren they're just at in the morning i just got three but i'm sure we'll have more probably ok so what the what do you do your free time well it's i have a lot of interest one of the things to make a decision right away now the county commissioner to make a decision i've got to check my two college colleagues check with the solicitor and take a feel of what the people feel and then you make it season about eight months later boy spent in the military i'm sure but you also educated here that's unusual most people go away and then come back maybe but you stayed here in the local area let's talk about some of the committees of the washington county has  said i've had the opportunity my wife is on the symphony and she's with design to organization another organization but in fact the county has a number of committees and oversight organizations that work  help make decisions and policies for for those departments but there's a lot that's available really of people i have an interest in some of these boards they should make their desires known by to contact the commissioners or those departments because we're always looking for good people who want to get involved because that that's very important before and most of all volunteer jobs none of them except maybe get a free coffee or someone once in a while but do you as a commissioner you're a part of a number of different organizations mentioned today that he's he's part of the washington symphony committee the board there can you talk about some of the things that you're involved i know you're involved with the veterans group yes the one thing that's near and dear to my heart is the veteran community here in washington county and real active with the american legion marine corps league more about the leathe unfortunately some of these older people who passed away who were involved in when it's world war two korea vietnam are there's not many people there and on and i think that's so important and we try to be involved with  making sure that happens but there's that's a big part of what i do and also involve the some other very active with california diversity and they're council trustees  trying to do some things and be involved with the students and actually the other big project that i run is the state police youth week it's young men and women who are interested in a career in either the police or the military and it's state wide and we run a camp at your college and if anybody's interested in a contact your local american legion but it's for young men and women who have completed their tenth grade and got to be at least fifteen to eighteen  years ago and actually actually i'm going to have him back before the end of september and we were talking about it in late two years ago you mentioned there's like one thousand nine hundred veterans from world war two dying a day and you know if you pass on seventy nine there and the flags lowered it gets lowered before the first internment of the day and it stays down until the last in time and they're actually operating somewhere between eight to sixteen a day and that's mostly because of the older veterans luckily luckily there's not well there's been too many die from the local area but you know comparison those numbers are still small yeah it is in that population gets older we lose more and more of them but then that's that's another good thing about this area we have a beautiful national cemetery and i'm actually i went up there yesterday morning  once every two months they have a ceremony they're heroes without family these are veterans that passed away and they have nobody to attend the service so what happens a lot of the veteran service organizations will go up there  it's usually about a forty five in the morning and we honor them with the military rights and there's usually ten or eleven veterans that we have the services for so that's something that the national cemetery ron is down there so he does a headstone at one of a private residence and then they had to do the research on why that one why they had it and two who belonged to and afterwards found out it was a veteran whose wife had passed away they got rid of this headstone because it was cracked or something and the family took it with them as versus that of destroying it as usual but some of the other things there's other organizations i'm glad you brought up that people can volunteer because i think that that's something that's very important one of things that i found interesting we have some very active people especially on memorial day that takes the flags around and puts among great i'm very familiar because i used to literally live the queen of heaven cemetery that that was my home and early fifty's when i was finished developing my father was involved in the management of the catholic cemetery association but as we lived there i never realized how many veterans were there and on memorial day after and we get kids and we get veterans groups that we had boy scouts out there to walk around and look for each gravestone that has a navy or army or marine a coast guard or air force and sing the on it and then they put a flag and these kids are very reverent when they do that at the end of the day on memorial day i have pictures and it's just one ocean of red white and blue and you can hardly see the grass and i just  being a being a retired air force i look at that and realize that we don't understand the common person walking on the street one doesn't understand how many veterans there have been from western pennsylvania but i did a program on another program called things that usually don't teach you and i was surprised that washington county had like seven medal of honor winners which in fact blew my mind because i expect that maybe in new york or maybe even allegheny county but we actually had more than they did it was fascinating les said but i remember whenever martin luther king when they were going to celebrate that birthday and get everybody off it cost the military that first year forty two million just in western pennsylvania that's how military how many military people there are here and you don't pay attention to that until it actually happens well they actually that's ironic he said that southwestern pennsylvania did a study has the highest per recipients it's amazing and i had the opportunity to actually work with the general here locally at the one seventy first and they honored whenever they were decommissioning the one twelfth fighter group they they brought as many as were alive and honest to god it's like sitting down talking to your grandfather these are very meek mild people who just at that time of history stood up and did everything they could possibly do and more and i said when you read these these stories oh my god you know it just it doesn't really i mean it gives me chills just thinking about it now but i had the opportunity to talk to three medal of honor winners at the ceremony and it was just  humbling because you know you wonder in time of emergency as these guys all tell you we didn't plan on doing that it just came as a sudden sue's as in death ground where you you have a choice either you fight with everything you have or you was the city mission that we have here and i know as a police officer i had more contact and face time with the mission they were always there they were always in the trenches where the rubber met the road so to speak to  help to do things and and i agree with you i think that's one of the most important organizations for as far as non profits that we that we have and they do a lot there right downtown washington they're in a place where people have access to them sometimes actually people who are left out of jail have no place to go or anything to do and they walk right down there to to get a start so they they are in the trenches they're there doing the things that need to be done and it's a great organization they're even trying now to work with veterans to work with any homeless veterans that may come around and we have a program with the counties set up with them to do things like that well you've you started as a the court system approved it to be done and it's a it's a process that where a veteran who comes in with a nonviolent violent crime whether it could be something like a dui or maybe possession of something that i don't say minor crime but not something very serious and they can come in and get counseling will have veterans representatives there and try to help them out before it escalates into something more serious and i think it's been pretty successful there's been some people gone through that program to get the help they need whether it's from some veterans service organizations whether it's from mental health organizations or  whether it's from the v a but we try to bring help in and make sure they go through that program and say go through that program and and a treatment that's described by the courts and approved by the courts and they will come out without a record and it's worked well and you know it's so we try to help some of the gentlemen and women who need it well mechanic commissioners have in fact continued a very successful program that just finished here two weeks ago the county fair all right and we had the opportunity to go and visit that it's fascinating once again we here don't necessarily always understand for each and all that whenever you go and you see the pride of these students and adults who stand up and jams and quilts and everything else they have a show place they can come and show their wares which most of us one don't have the time i had to don't have the patience by lies that with the four age being very active in washington county  the allegheny county fair i remember whenever i was sixteen and seventeen and eighteen years old oh my god i loved it yeah they had smokey robinson in a miracle show an op and they had they had events and they had the skyway when though they put that in and everybody was able to ride and see what that was like and everything else it was part of our being at that time but the bottom line is allegheny county doesn't have that anymore they have these little pig roast and everything else to try to make up for it you came in as a commissioner three three terms ago yes two thousand and four and why did you decide to run for that well i was county sheriff i just won my second election i was two years into the term and i as i said earlier i had never been involved in politics other than voting i always vote i was registered to vote and i always voted since i was  some issues there at the county level and i just really got bit by the bug when i got involved with the sheriff's office although that was still a law enforcement job but it was a little bit political i had to run for office and i watched there was a lot issues in the county a lot of things going on within the county commissioners and i thought you know what i think i can make a difference i found i did a good job but as a county sheriff i think i cleaned them some some things up there and i  moved forward and i thought the skill sets i can use at the county level and you know i always thought if i was successful and one ok if i wasn't you know what the good lord gave me a good ride anyways and  and i enjoy it i still be happy but i was successful and i thought there were some things that i really felt strongly about at that point and we got in there and i think i think the commissioners handle and then move forward make those stations so that's i just thought making that move in it's been i've enjoyed it's been a challenge been ups and downs but overall it really  it county government is where the rubber meets the road and nothing gives me more pleasure if somebody comes and i don't seek pleasure but gratification somebody come up and have a little have an issue whether it's going through the help veterans wise or health center medical corps or whatever the case is being able to help them maybe make a phone call and point them in the right direction maybe giving them a voice and that somebody who's worked their whole life or they don't have a lot of political clout or political power not vul they just someone who's done what they've been asking and they need a little help and that's gratifying that what will we hit we have just a couple seconds left and i'm pointing to some of your successes and this year during your tenure south point all right that's probably one of the most successful programs the that i know of anywhere in the state and i happened to visit a lot of these different places in my in my different positions but  up we need another place there's a place near south point x a cold ok which is a nine hundred eleven acres of development that's probably the next south point that that's going to be developed here in the near future work on and on as we speak and i think that that's been what was good but the other thing is you're right but the key to one of our success here i think has been our low taxes in washington county people coming here and i think that's so