Winfeld Town Marshal resigns post after a decade

Winfield Town Marshal Dan Ball resigned his post effective Friday.

Ball, who earlier in January had been placed on paid administrative leave, was sworn in as Winfield’s first town marshal on Aug. 26, 2014, and was instrumental in starting up the new police department a month later.

He couldn’t be reached for comment.

Ball was placed on paid administrative leave following a Jan. 10 meeting with two members of the town council including Town Councilman Zack Beaver, R-at-large, and Town Councilman Tim Clayton, R-at-large.

“Tim and I met with Dan to plan for his transition and things fell apart,” Beaver said at a Town Council meeting on Tuesday.

Both Beaver and Clayton have declined to provide additional details on Ball, citing it involved personnel matters.

Ball had the right to have a disciplinary hearing if he had requested one but didn’t, Beaver said on Friday.

“We reached an amicable settlement agreement,” Beaver said of the meeting on Thursday with him, Clayton and Ball.

Ball on Friday had removed his personal belongings from the office.

Beaver said others on the Town Council had been advised on Friday of the outcome.

Detective Corporal Jordan Billups-Taylor has assumed Ball’s duties while the town conducts a search for a new police department head, Beaver said.

The job has been posted on the town’s website and applicants have until March 14 to respond.

“We hope to have a new person in place by April 1,” Beaver said.

Beaver praised the work of Ball over the last 10 years.

“He was our first town marshal and he got us our start,” Beaver said.

The Winfield Police Department was started in the fall of 2014 after having been served by the Lake County Police Department.

The town, formed in 1993, is one of the fastest-growing communities in the state, according to Veridus Group, an Indianapolis-based company hired by the Town Council to draft a new comprehensive master plan.

The Winfield Police Department also has continued to grow to protect and serve a population that has tripled in size and was around 7,000 in the 2020 U.S. census.

Beaver said the number of police officers should reach 12 by the end of the year.

He said the police department in the near future will be moving into its newly remodeled headquarters, a former bank located across the street from the Winfield Government Center, 10645 Randolph St., which presently houses the police department, township and town offices.

The council had agreed to lease the 1,864-square-foot building from owners Winfield Development 1 LLC at an initial monthly rate of $4,830.

Deborah Laverty is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.