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Sgt. Rowland Schmidt will always remember Stettler as a great place - Spotlight

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Starting to clean his desk – Sgt. Rowland Schmidt is preparing to retire from RCMP service for a new career to manage a health facility in Saskatchewan

Sgt. Rowland Schmidt of RCMP Stettler Detachment is an enviable man, not because he will be taking off his police uniform for the last time this Friday, but because he will be taking off the uniform while still enjoying the job he has been doing for 30 years, which he has always perceived as a service to community.

The soft spoken commander of the Stettler detachment is returning to Saskatchewan, the province where he had all his previous five assignments as an RCMP officer, Outlook, Regina, Prince Albert, Punnichy and Shaunavon, and where three of his four children currently reside.

“Herbert, Saskatchewan ,” said Schmidt when asked where his next destination is, a small town just east of Swift Current on Trans-Canada Highway.

What about his next assignment?

“It is not going to be another RCMP assignment,” said Schmidt. “I am taking early retirement.”

“I am getting out of law enforcement and I am going to be managing an integrated health facility, a hospital and care home.”

“It’s been really good. I very much enjoyed it” said Schmidt of his 30-year RCMP career.

“This is my favorite spot, the best place I have ever been,” he said of Stettler.

This is a great community and a great group of people I have worked with.”

“I have never seen people work this hard and this is a busy spot, in my estimation.”

At the end of a career, would Sgt. Schmidt recommend to youngsters a career with RCMP?

“It is a lot of fun and it is a well paying job,” is the immediate answer.

“The RCMP is run really well, it is a good organization.”

“I have always looked at it as a service to the community,” stresses Schmidt as he explains the reason why he enjoyed serving with the RCMP so much.

“But it’s got crazy shifts, it’s got bumps on the road, it’s got lots of call-outs, it will definitely disturb your family, and your family has to be flexible and tolerant with you.”

But he adds that the job comes with the added bonus of the ability to move a lot around the country and the opportunity to see different places and live in different communities.

Schmidt adds that there is something else in the Stettler community that has added to his job satisfaction.

“I got involved with the Communities against Abuse and volunteered there, I got really close with the church group in Erskine, and worked a lot there and I got involved with Legion and the Rotary.”

“It is the people in Stettler that make this community a great place. Actually we were just about to get to know more people that I felt I needed to make this change for personal reasons.”

“We will be leaving with mixed feelings,” said Schmidt.

Who will replace Sgt. Schmidt and when is anybody’s guess.

Until the Stettler detachment has a new sergeant, the community is in the safe hands of the RCMP detachment under the leadership of Cpl. Terry Best.