It’s not as though John Schnadenberg and Dale Pflughaupt didn’t have enough on their plates.

Schnadenberg is the Chesterton Street Commissioner and Pflughaupt an insurance agent. But somehow, over most of their professional lives, they’ve found the time to spend hundreds of unpaid hours every year in the service of the Chesterton Police Reserves.

On Thursday, Interim Police Chief Nick Brown presented Sgt. Schnadenberg and Sgt. Pflughaupt with plaques honoring them for that service, on the occasion of their retirement from the Reserves.

Over the course of 27 years, Pflughaupt worked 10,980 hours in uniform. Over the course of 33 years, Schnadenberg worked 8,600 hours.

Put those numbers in context. Pflughaupt worked on average 406 hours per year--once again, unpaid hours--as a Reserve Officer. That’s around eight hours per week. Schnadenberg, for his part, worked an average of 260 hours per year, or five hours per week.

Or look at it this way. Pflughaupt’s 10,980 hours are equivalent to working a full-time job for nearly five and a half years. Schnadenberg’s 8,600 hours, to working a full-time job for nearly four and a half years.

As Brown noted, Pflughaupt and Schnadenberg are far and away the longest serving volunteers in the history of the CPD Reserves, and their retirement will leave a pair of holes in the program which may be very difficult to fill.

Member Mike Orlich took a moment at the end of the meeting to express his profound gratitude to both men, for “their countless efforts and all the hours for not much more than a thank you.”

“I am honored to know you and to have served with you and to call you friends,” Member Pete Duda added. “I am forever indebted to you for your friendship and the dedication you have displayed to the department.”

“I have a lot of friends forever because of the Reserves,” Pflughaupt said.