A vote for Jim Kidwell is a vote to end our outstanding police protection provided by the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department.

Mr. Kidwell has made it very clear over the past several years that his intention is to form his own police department or to contract with the Niles City Police Department. He has done this every year by proposing budgets that eliminated the sheriff’s coverage in lieu of his own Kidwell-run department.

Any budget that did not have his police department, he voted not to approve. He reaffirmed this last week at the candidate forum held at the Niles Senior Center. He claims it would be less expensive.

Most citizens can remember when we had our own township police department, and they also remember what it was like.

It really wasn’t less expensive when you included all the operating costs and the unforeseen costs of lawsuits and attorney fees.

Quite frankly — no thanks, Mr. Kidwell.

He claims he doesn’t want to be chief of police, but in his proposed budgets, he never allocated money for that position.

When questioned by other board members, his answer was that he could oversee that position as supervisor.

Why doesn’t he just be honest and say that he wants to be the chief, because by law he cannot serve as both. Mr. Kidwell has a problem of being honest with voters.

Citizens have a choice next Tuesday to either keep the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department by voting Mr. Kidwell out of office, or they can choose to go back to what we had before.

I’ll vote for Jim Stover, and that vote preserves my Berrien County Sheriff’s Department protection. I hope you do, too.

Peggy Hopper

Niles Township