Mike Dukes has returned to the Chase County Sheriff’s Office after a little less than two years with the Lexington Police Department. Changes that dropped the cost of health insurance for county employees enabled his return. (Johnson Publications photo)
Mike Dukes returns to sheriff’s office, Wauneta
If you call for a sheriff’s deputy in Wauneta, chances are you’re going to see a familiar face.
After not quite two years with the Lexington Police Department, Mike Dukes has returned to the Chase County Sheriff’s Office.
And as a bonus for Wauneta residents, he will be living there, although he won’t necessarily be based here.
This is his second time working for Chase County.
The first time ended because of a purely financial decision. Dukes, 49, had been chief deputy for Chase County for six years, but health insurance costs suddenly doubled to $1,400, which Dukes couldn’t afford. He took the job in Lexington purely because it offered affordable health insurance.
But Chase County changed its health insurance program, dropping the cost back to $500 a month.
“I’d always wanted to come back,” he said. “I’d still remained friends with (Sheriff) Kevin (Mueller) and all the guys at the sheriff’s office and had always hoped that if they were able to add a position or get the health insurance back down to where it was affordable, I’d like to come back.”
A couple of months ago, citing increased caseloads due to both area drug busts in Wauneta and a change in State Patrol operations that removed two troopers from this area, Mueller found enough money in his budget to add a position.
And a couple of months before that happened, sheriff’s office officials had talked to Wauneta village trustees about possibly having a deputy live in town. While Dukes kept his home and family in Wauneta, there were no Chase County deputies in that community. Village trustees were reluctant to increase the hours for the deputy and the discussions went nowhere.
At the end of this year, Dukes will mark his 25th anniversary in law enforcement. But as a cop’s son, he’s always been familiar with what it’s like to strap on a badge and a gun. His father served with various sheriff’s offices in Nebraska for 40 years.
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