SHEFFIELD - After 29 years in law enforcement and eight years as chief in Sheffield, police Chief Mike Gurich is hanging up his handcuffs, retiring June 5 and moving to South Dakota.
Today is his last day on the job.

“I`m moving to Spearfish, S.D.,” Gurich said. “All my kids are out in that area. I have a daughter in Wyoming, another daughter in South Dakota and a son in Colorado.”

Gurich and his wife plan to spend lots of time with their children and grandchild. And more grandchildren will arrive soon, he said.

Mayor John Hunter said Gurich will be missed.

“Mike is a very competent and hard-working chief who will be a loss to the village,” Hunter said Thursday.

Capt. Larry Bliss was appointed May 11 to serve as interim police chief until a permanent replacement can be found.

“I will start the process in the near future in the hopes of having it done by the end of the year,” Hunter said. “I`m not going to rush into it because we`re having financial issues in the village, so I`ll keep Interim Chief Larry Bliss working while I`m doing the search for a new chief.”

Sheffield Village Council will have to approve Hunter`s choice.

In the meantime, Gurich has no immediate plans for his future other than to spend his summer relaxing. He said his years in Sheffield have been a pleasure.

“Being the chief has been wonderful,” he said. “I had an outstanding crew of people who worked for me. They adapted to my philosophies of law enforcement readily, which made it very easy to work with them.”

The residents and business owners he`s gotten to know over the years will be missed as well, Gurich said.

“The citizens are great,” he said. “We`d meet and discuss what`s going on in the community. — It`s that grassroots kind of contact I liked. I enjoyed working with the people on that level. The people in the village are just wonderful people, very open, very nice. It`s been great to work with them and to serve with them.”

Gurich said he may return to law enforcement on a part-time basis in the future, possibly for the U.S. Marshals Office doing courtroom security.

Bliss said he was happy to be chosen as interim chief and hopes the position becomes permanent. His plans as interim chief for now are simple.

“You never want to go into something and start making changes right off the bat, so, for right now, it will be business as usual,” he said. “I`ve been (in law enforcement) for 20 years. I started as an auxiliary in 1989 and worked my way up through the ranks. I grew up here and went to school here and it`s been a goal of mine to be police chief.

“For now, however, I intend to focus on what`s going on with the department. I plan to go into the job and do the best that I can do as interim chief.”

Hunter and Gurich will spend part of Gurich`s last day discussing the best way to choose his replacement.

“I`ve asked (Gurich) to list all the things he feels we need in a new chief and to recommend a process he would use to pick one,” Hunter said. “I will sit down with him (today) and go through that process.”

Contact Alicia Castelli at 329-7144 or acastelli@chroniclet.com.

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