Eric Starkey is looking forward to his new role as Watseka police chief.

He was sworn in at the April 22 meeting of the city council and will official start in that capacity May 1.

He leaves the Iroquois County Sheriff’s Department to become police chief.

“Change is hard,” he said. “You’ve been somewhere for 20 years and you’ve dedicated so much time and effort into doing your job that you love. To make a change is hard. It was a little nerve-racking coming here to night just because of the situation of changing jobs. When you get here tonight and see the amount of people that come and take time out of their day to show you how much they care about you and that they support you, people that I truly care about and invest so much time and effort into, all those nerves just went away.”

 

He said he is ready to get started.

“My role will change from what I was doing at the sheriff’s department. I couldn’t be more excited and honored to protect and serve the citizens of a town that I’ve lived in and raised my family in over the last 20 years. Being on the school board, being active in all the coaching of youth sports and high school sports that I do, and all the relationships that I’ve built over that 20 years, friends, family, business owners, kids, to be able to focus my attention and serve them and this city is something I couldn’t be more excited about.”

Starkey said he is very appreciative of those who stepped up to fill in between the time that retired chief Jeremy Douglas left and he takes over.

“I think the Mark (interim chief Harris) needs to be recognized for what he did in the interim. He was asked to do a job and did it.”

Starkey said he is excited to work the officers and continue to move the department in a positive direction.