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end of an era

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Waynesburg Police Chief Tim Hawfield holds a baseball bat in this photo taken in 1983.

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Tim Hawfield’s long tenure as chief of the Waynesburg Police Department will come to an end in July when he retires.

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A file photo of Waynesburg Police Chief Tim Hawfield taken in 1984.

During 32 years as chief of the Waynesburg Police Department, Tim Hawfield has managed the duties expected of a top administrator as he directs and oversees the work of the 10 full- and part-time patrolmen on the force.

But he also has had to assume other duties, necessary because of the department’s size, that have included those of patrolman, investigator, school crossing guard and even fundraiser at a time when council tightened his budget and the department was badly in need of a new car.

“I wear a blue shirt, not a white shirt,” he said, describing his work. “I still have a responsibility to do law enforcement; and with a small department, even more so.”

The fact that he still must occasionally hit the street and deal with people, which sometimes may involve using force, convinced him it was time to call it quits. Hawfield, 64, will retire July 16.

“It’s gotten to the point I am not physically able to keep up with the demands of the street. I can do foot patrols, talk to people, even resolve situations, but if it got physical, I might be in trouble,” he said. “I might put an officer who was with me in jeopardy because he was looking after me rather than himself.”

Reminiscing about his time as chief, Hawfield speaks of the good times more often than the bad. He enjoys telling funny stories, some from a diary he kept years ago and others from a folder he has maintained of papers and news clippings. He talks about the characters who have come and gone in a small town.

Those are some of the things he will miss, he said. “It’s the diversity of things and the camaraderie here,” he said. “It’s the funny things that happen, and thankfully a lot of this is funny, even in a macabre sense.”

He mentions the time he was walking to his in-laws’ house in Waynesburg around Christmas for supper and discovered a dead camel at a nativity scene. And the time he located the parked car of a man who earlier was reportedly driving erratically and when he ran the license plate, he learned it was from his wife’s truck.

Then there was the man who found what he thought was a homemade bomb out in western Greene County. Rather than leaving it alone and calling police or the fire department, he loaded it into his vehicle and drove it to Waynesburg.

Hawfield said he had to call in the Allegheny County bomb squad. They came and determined it was a large homemade firecracker, still strong enough to blow off a man’s hand, he said.

Hawfield began his career in law enforcement by chance.

A native of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Md., area, he came to Waynesburg to attend Waynesburg College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in history. While at Waynesburg, he also met and married his wife, Carol.

After graduating, he entered the U.S. Army where he learned Chinese. He then worked as a manager in a psychiatric ward at a hospital in Washington, D.C., while he received a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Maryland.

“Our family was just starting and we thought now was the time to make a change and relocate to a safer area,” he said. The couple decided to return to Waynesburg, which offered a safe environment and where his wife’s family resided.

His start in law enforcement came when he took a part-time job as policeman in Point Marion. It was a “stop gap job” until something better came along, he said.

On his second night on the job, while on foot patrol, he saw a man attempting to break into a car at a used car lot. The man fled in another vehicle but Hawfield was able to get a license plate number, which led to the man’s arrest the following night.

“I thought that was pretty exciting,” he said. That aspect of law enforcement, catching the bad guy, has always been a rush, he said. “It’s exhilarating. You were able to catch this person, remove him from society and make the town a little safer and you can come back and feel pretty good about it.”

Hawfield was with Point Marion about six months before taking a job with Waynesburg. When the chief, Jim Rogers, resigned because of health problems, Hawfield was promoted to the chief’s position.

Over the years, Hawfield has investigated numerous cases. He talked of a few he considers most significant, though he does not fail to mention several investigated by others in the department in which he also takes particular pride.

In May 1991, Hawfield led the investigation of a fatal stabbing in Ritchie Park. Anthony Salveggi of Mt. Morris was accused of stabbing his wife’s boyfriend, Michael Rogers of Waynesburg.

“It was like 36 hours straight that I didn’t get out of my uniform or go home to get any sleep,” he said. “After (Salveggi) was caught, arraigned and put in jail, it was a great relief.” Hawfield said he was a little disappointed when a jury later found Salveggi guilty of voluntary manslaughter. He thought he should have been convicted of at least third-degree murder.

Other significant cases he investigated were the two fatal fires in 2010, one at a house on North Richhill Street and the other at the Avalon Court apartments. Each resulted in two deaths and required extensive investigation, though neither led to an arrest. Hawfield worked on the cases with the state police fire marshal.

“If nothing else, the victims demanded answers as to why they died,” he said. “I don’t know that it ever satisfied the families but I’m comfortable we took it as far as we possibly could.”

The fire investigations were tough, not only because of the work involved but also because of the emotional aspect of the cases. One fire had involved the death of two children.

“You’re dealing with a family’s tragedy and that can be heart breaking,” Hawfield said. “You have to put up your shields. You can’t afford to feel the heartbreak; that’s not you’re job,” he said. “You go home later and you feel bad about it.”

Hawfield said he is thankful to have a wife who has always been understanding, supportive and, he adds, “tolerant.”

Hawfield also cited the good work of other officers on the force, including the investigation surrounding the sale of illegal drugs at Balsamo Pizza in 1984.

“It seems I had the right people in the right places to get me through things,” he said. He spoke of his lieutenants, Dave Clark, Glenn Bates and Dale Phillips, but there were others, too. “If I had problems with officers who were burned out or slacking off, I always had someone who could give me the extra support to work through a situation.”

Hawfield said he also has been lucky that though he has not always seen eye to eye with borough council, particularly in the 1980s when police funding was tight, council never interfered with the department’s work.

“What I like best about our department is that we’ve never had political pressure for untouchables,” he said. “I can’t say that for every police department, but this department has never had any significant pressure to not take action against a person.”

Hawfield talked about the time in the 1980s when his department had to raise money for equipment and a police car.

“We’ve been adequately funded since then, but at the time we would do what we had to do to be a viable force,” he said. “They (council) wanted you to do the best job but they won’t give you the tools to do it, so out of our own pride and self respect we did this.”

The department’s cars at the time were old and needed to be replaced and officers needed equipment.

“This was when we had a couple citizens, businessmen, step up and get us a car. It really helped get us over a bad period,” he said. The department also had a country singer come in and put on a benefit show that helped out tremendously.

Hawfield said support from the community has always been “terrific.” First Federal Savings and Loan of Greene County, McCracken Pharmacy and Waynesburg University, to name a few, have been very generous, he said.

“I met some terrific people,” he added. “Those are the ones I like to think I’m working for. It’s been a pleasure knowing them; this is where humanity shines.”

As a police chief in a small town, Hawfield said he believes it’s important to maintain a close connection to the community. “We have to be closer to the community. We have to sell ourselves every day,” Hawfield said. “That’s not a bad thing. We’re here at the taxpayer’s expense and so we have to provide a service they’re willing to pay for,” he said.

Then, there was the time he had to enter a house to remove 47 dogs that had never been let outside. “The smell was so invasive in your sinuses and in your throat that when you got outside you still smelled it and it’s in your uniform,” he said. “I ended up having to destroy parts of my uniform.”

Another time, Hawfield found a jar that was determined to contain the cremated ashes of a child. The jar was never claimed and he learned that in a closet of one of the funeral homes in the area there are several other jars of ashes that also have never been claimed.

Hawfield keeps a note pad with pages filled with nothing but misspellings from his officers’ reports. They include “colige,” “handy cap,” and “threw out” as in throughout the county.

He also came up with the idea of the husband calling contest at the annual Rain Day celebration. The contest was halted several years ago after one contestant was led away in handcuffs for being too drunk and the winner, who was calling her husband home from jail, admitted he really was in the county lockup.

“They thought it was detrimental to the image of the community,” Hawfield said. Hawfield thought it was great.

During retirement, Hawfield said he will continue volunteering with the Boy Scouts, the Salvation Army and his church. He also will continue to explore his interest in history, and has already penciled in two dates in which he is to speak to local groups about the Civil War, one of his passions.

He also has plenty of work to catch up on around the house, he said.

Asked if he ever got burned out from the job, his answer is no. “There have been bad days, very bad days, dreadful situations I’ve had to confront, but knowing this and having experienced that, I know eventually it will right itself.”

And he never tired of his job. “It’s been very rewarding to me, often challenging,” he said. “I don’t like all aspects of it because there is ugliness in the world and I have to deal with that sometimes, but overall, I’ve been very blessed to have a job I really like.”

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