PHOTOS BY BARBARA HARDT Celebrating 20 years Top; Larry Johns and Jen Fine-Loven share a moment at Larry’s retirement party at the Nederland Community Center. Bottom; Larry Johns offers words of appreciation to “Fuzzy Bob,” one of the first people he met in the area. Bob was the Marshal of the Town of Ward for many years.[/caption]

How do you thank a man like Larry Johns? I guess you don’t. Some things just can’t be done. You can’t sum up 20 years of dedication, sacrifice, compassion, understanding and loyalty, with a thank you.

I chuckle when I recall the time I asked Larry how I could support him as a new sergeant, asking him what my formal job description should be. I think anyone who knows Larry, wouldn’t ever describe anything about him as formal. He stood at my office door and said, “Hold on a second,” leaving to retrieve something from his office. He came back and handed my job description to me on a scrap of paper. There it was. Hand written. It read, “Everything I don’t want to do.” That note is still hanging in my office. Larry could always make me laugh no matter how knee deep in it we were.

I’ll say it. I’ll put it in print at the risk of ruffling some city cop feathers. Take a big city cop and put him in Ned for a day. Take Larry and put him in the big city for a day. Big City Cop: 0/Ned: 1. We win. We win because that city cop isn’t going to know how to get a bear out of a tree, deal with a drunk guy on a horse, chat casually with a person armed with a machete, talk a known fighter into handcuffs while they thank him for being so cool. And Folks, that may have just been Larry’s years 1-5. There are another 15 to follow.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say, “Things are different up here in Ned.” I think it takes a whole lot of “different” to be accepted and embraced by the community the way Larry has. He’s not just the calm before the storm, he’s the calm during and after. There’s a reason for that. Larry is what policing is meant to be. People go to him for help, report back to him with accomplishments, confide in him their troubles. He is trusted, valued, and sought after for solutions that work.

Friends, this is why we can’t thank Larry. His work here will never cease to exist. It is woven into the fabric of who we are and how we work. It is why we know the value of our word and the importance of our actions. If law enforcement retired numbers on team shirts, I’d be wearing one that reads: Marshal Larry Johns-N1.