Police dog retires after seven years on force

Last week, Schaumburg honored its longest serving police officer -- Dutch native Paul Schnetz -- on the 35th anniversary of his start with the police department.

But another European-born member of the department has devoted an even greater percentage of his life to the health, safety and welfare of Schaumburg residents.

This week, it was police dog Cliff who was honored on the occasion of his retirement from the force.

Cliff is a 9-year-old German Shepherd who was actually born in and received his early training in Germany.

He was sworn in during the summer of 2000 after completing a six-week course in tracking and drug searches.

For most of the time since then, he has worked with Officer Mike Hanley and will remain a member of Hanley's family in his retirement.

During his years of service, Cliff has:

• Responded to more than 1,700 police calls

• Conducted 400 searches for narcotics, and recovered both marijuana and cocaine.

• Helped in the seizure of about $100,000 in drug-deal money and a Cadillac also used in drug deals

• Personally located 25 criminals found guilty of robbery, battery, domestic battery and vehicle theft

• Assisted in more than 300 criminal arrests

• Located nine suicidal or missing persons

• Conducted 500 building searches

• Assisted on 150 calls to other area police departments and took part in 250 presentations to school and community groups.

Cliff has also received numerous awards and recognitions from the public.

Hanley said Cliff's retirement wasn't determined by a date on a calendar, though he will be a venerable 10 years old in June. Rather, he was clearly slowing down due to a bad disc in his back.

Nevertheless, Cliff is naturally inclined to work due to his breed and his training. He's only gradually getting used to his retirement and enjoying "a dog's life" of doing whatever he wants whenever he wants, Hanley said.

Schaumburg still has another police dog in service, Bosco, but plans to hire a second dog to succeed Cliff later this year.

Appetizing young land for sale:ŒSchaumburg officials want to sell a 54-acre piece of property they've bought near the Schaumburg Regional Airport, but are willing to wait for just the right developer to come along.

The village gradually acquired the Murzyn-Anderson property over the past four years for $7.8 million.

The land is in the southwest corner of the village, south and west of St. John Lutheran Church at Irving Park and Rodenburg roads.

The village bought the land because it was one of the last large sites in Schaumburg and officials wanted to save it until a proposal matching its potential could be found.

To compare its relative potential at 54 acres, the village's convention center and Renaissance Hotel at Meacham Road and the Northwest Tollway lie on only 45 acres.

While the village isn't exactly in the market for a second convention center or mall, neither does it want such a prominent property between the airport and Alexian Field to end up a freight yard or storage facility, Mayor Al Larson said.

But village officials aren't the ones who are going to come up with the winning idea.

"We just want to make sure people know what's not going to be built there," Larson said. "I want something special."

Though there are no ideas set in stone yet, the general expectation is that a single developer will be able to do something worthwhile with the entire site, village manager Ken Fritz said.

The village is open to discussions and has already turned away a handful of ideas, Fritz said.