Veteran Police Officer Retires

    Richard Schneider, an East Hampton Village Police Department lieutenant and 35-year veteran of the force, has retired. The village board accepted his resignation on Friday, his last day on the job. The board also authorized a payment of $129,229.04 for accrued time.

    “Rich, we wish you the very best for whatever the future holds for you and your family,” Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said. “Good health and longevity.” The lieutenant told the board that he was retiring with mixed emotions. “The Police Department is my family,” he said.

    In the 1970s, Lieutenant Schneider recalled, he worked for Bruce Siska, who is now a board member, at the A&B Snowflake. “I want to thank Bruce for that opportunity to work and to learn from him, and wish to thank this village board on behalf of the village board from 1977, which took the recommendation of then-Chief Carl Dordelman to hire me. I took what I learned from the Snowflake and started using that as a special [police officer], then as a traffic control officer, then back to being special police officer whose job title changed from year to year.”

    “As the mayor always says, and I concur, this is the best police department on Long Island,” the lieutenant said. “Thank you for letting me be a part of it.”

    “I’ve worked with Rich for the last 30 years,” Police Chief Gerard Larsen said. “It’s been a pleasure. He’s a wonderful cop, he’s a wonderful person, and he’s going to be very much missed.”