Lewisport growth continues; duplex next; city names new police officer

The Lewisport City Council met on Thursday evening, November 17 and Josh Roberts, Lewisport City Manager, was appointed Lewisport Mayor Pro Tem (from the Latin, pro tempore, meaning ‘for the time being’). He will serve when Mayor Chad Gregory is out of town, sick, or otherwise unable to preside at meetings or appear on behalf of the City of Lewisport.

Continued Growth of Lewisport

The City of Lewisport has been continually growing with new homes being purchased and built. During last month’s meeting, City Attorney Charlie Kamuf gave the first reading of an ordinance to rezone from an R2 to an R3 in order for a new duplex to be built on Community Center Drive in front of Lewisport City Hall. The second reading was done at this month’s meeting allowing the landowner, Ricky Johnson, to begin construction of another 2-story duplex on the property next to the existing one.

“We purchased the property with the duplex on it already,” Ricky said. “We assumed that it was zoned for multi-family. One more duplex will go on that property and it will face the Lewisport Library. We’re fixing it and making it right, like it should’ve been done 15 years ago (before he purchased the property). We want to help build the County. We live in and grew up in Hancock County and would like to see more things going on in the County and help make it happen.”

Ricky said they have 3 houses that are already sold in Hancock Park and a spec for one more. There are 18 lots total. “We have 3 under construction right now and we just started this past week.”

For 18 years, Ricky has owned and ran his business Johnson Plumbing and he also is the owner of CTR Homes. Jessica Estes and Ricky’s wife, April Johnson, own Southern Girls Property and Ricky and Kyle help out with that as well. “We will be doing another development with Southern Girls in Hawesville, hopefully starting next year. We have to get the paperwork done properly first, of course, before we start it,” he said.

Lewisport Police Chief John Garner will be retiring after many years of serving. Garner was elected as District 1 Magistrate for East & West Lewisport and he will be starting that new position in 2023. Lewisport Police Officer Greg Linn will be the new Chief of Police.

Nick Jarboe will soon be joining the Lewisport City police force and was sworn in at this month’s meeting. “I’m excited about it,” Jarboe said. “It’s been a lifelong dream of mine. I will be the third generation of Jarboes to do law enforcement in Hancock County. I look forward to serving the community and helping out those in need. Something I’m really passionate about is serving people and I feel like this is going to be a great avenue to do that.

I have prior experience in 911 Dispatch and Corrections and I feel like it will be a good segue into that. I started the 911 Dispatcher in 2015. I maintained full-time and part-time status up until June of 2021. In 2017 I had left the full-time position and went and worked at Branchville Correctional Facility in Indiana (Perry County), while maintaining part-time status there. I stayed consistent with my training and I worked about a shift or 2 per month as a dispatcher. I got quite a bit of experience as a corrections officer and eventually made my way back to dispatch and stayed there through all of the coronavirus pandemic. Now I’m going into the Lewisport Police Department.”

Jarboe’s training isn’t completed yet. “I had a bunch of hoops to jump through, as far as paperwork and our application process,” he said. “There are background checks and things that have to be done. There is physical testing that has to be done. You have to do running and weightlifting, etc.”

He has completed the testing and still needs to go to the Police Academy. “I have up to a year from my hire date to enroll into the academy – it’s 20 weeks long,” he said. “Until I go to the academy I’ll be doing training with Greg Linn and John Garner. I will be doing on-the-job training with Greg and John until I go to the academy and when I get back, I believe they are going to have to do more on-the-job training just to apply what I learned in the academy to real policing.”

Jarboe doesn’t have a date set right now of when he will start at the Law Enforcement Basic Training Academy at the Department of Criminal Justice Training center in Richmond, Kentucky. “The way it works,” he said, “you have to have all of your paperwork done and you have to be hired first before you can sign up for the academy. So they are working on getting that date for me now. The first class opens up in January 2023 but I believe it’s full. The next one, I think, doesn’t start until March 2023.”

He added that in today’s day and age, “the world of policing is a lot different than it was 50 years ago. There’s a lot more considerations that you have to take. I think these classes and these programs are better preparing law enforcement for the challenges we face today. It’s definitely eye-opening. My dad (Michael Jarboe) was a police officer when I was in elementary school (2004 & 2005) and we were scared because our dad was putting his life on the line. I don’t think that our world was the same as it was in 2005.

I’m a Christian and I feel like there needs to be more men and women in law enforcement who are of the faith. I want to use my heart to serve the Lord to serve people and to help people out and to bring justice to those who need it. I think that some of the things you have to see and experience – if you didn’t have your life grounded in the Lord, I don’t think you’d be able to handle it very well.”