2003 Year in Review

Bealer Retires After 15 Years of Changing Lives

Beverly Bealer retires after almost 16 years with Whiteside County Probation Department.

Resolution No. 1 from County Board Chairman Tony Arduini honored Beverly Bealer of Morrison for “…her diligence and exemplary performance at Whiteside County Court Services as Juvenile Probation Officer to Whiteside County and its citizens.”

“Bev, I’m behaving myself,” that’s the first words many Whiteside County residents say to Beverly Bealer. She recently retired with almost 16 years in the Probation Department. Beverly worked to implement and change the public service work program. She affected anyone who has ever been assigned public service by the Whiteside Court system.

“I will forever be indebted to you because when I was State’s Attorney and first devised the public service work program you are the one to give it substance…you put the meat on the bone,” Judge Tim Slavin wrote regarding her retirement.

She set up a program with Winning Wheels in Prophetstown so alcohol offenders would have to help there along with listening to the stories of the residents. 80% of the residents are there because of a drug or alcohol related incident.

Bev had a 67 year old “drunk” who needed to do public service. The work was not as important as a need to find a place to change his direction. After his experience at Winning Wheels he stopped drinking and he has abstained since. The challenge is to find the right place and program.

Salvaging lives is a part of the job Bev loves. One time she had a drug dealer who was disabled with three children to support. He was unkempt and not the type of employee most businesses wanted to hire. The courts converted his fines into 13,000 hours of public service. Bev found him a job in maintenance. He started by cleaning out the boiler room, moved out to the grounds, and later became self-taught on the computer. He cleaned himself up, wore a uniform, and was always on time. The business informed her he was better than their paid employees and asked his hours be transferred back to a fine so they could hire him. He became the highest paid employee in his department. Success stories like this is what made her job so rewarding.

In the 90’s there were a lot of juveniles needing public service but no one would hire them. Bev implemented trash pickup for IDOT. She started with three kids picking up Saturday mornings out of the back of her husband’s pickup truck. The County bought her a van then a bus. The Sheriff’s department outfitted it with bars for safety and her protection. Saturdays Bev would drive around Whiteside County picking up 12-15 juveniles and they would head for interstate 88 to pick up the trash.

“It was a hard day and nobody was happy to be there,” according to Bev. “It was 35 miles from one end of the county to the other and we walked it 4 times per summer.”

Tim Slavin supplemented, “Who can ever forget the sight of Beverly… pulling out of the parking lot at the wheel of the brown ‘Magic Bus’ full of its occupants so happy to be with you going to unlitter the highways and byways of our communities?”

When the strong winds went through Erie a few years ago, Bev obtained permission to take her Saturday crew to help clean up. She contacted Erie’s mayor and head of public works to direct their activities. A college intern, part of another program she implemented, acquired a chain saw and knew how to run it. The juveniles raked yards, cleaned up branches, and hauled wood for the elderly and infirmed around Erie. Even though many of the kids might have been gang member the people were very thankful for the help and had tears in their eyes. They were given donuts, pizza, and pop by the residents and were invited to come back and swim in the pool they helped clean out. Before then, when they would take a break along the interstate to take a break or have lunch, the people of Erie were suspicious of the boys. But after helping the residents, there was a change in attitude. Not just of the people of Erie but from the juveniles. Nobody cared when they cleaned the highway but they felt they saved the people of Erie. Beverly calls this “Zeros to Heroes”. The Sheriff’s department gave each kid a commendation.

“The job has been challenging and demanding but the rewards along the way made me love the it.” Her life experiences, starting out as a teacher with a two year degree out of college and raising three sons: Mike (in Washington State), Phillip (of Morrison), and John (in Wisconsin) along with her seven grandchildren, were what helped enrich the Probation job. After raising her children, Bev wanted to get back to teaching and needed to finish her Bachelors Degree and get her teaching certificate. She started at the Probation Department before she finished her degree and was working while going to school. Even so, Bev graduated with a 4.0 average.

The last three or four years, Bev worked in the Juvenile Intake Office and had worked exclusively with juveniles. There were 564 juvenile police reports last year and her department needed to investigate and make recommendations to the courts. If a juvenile had a drug problem, she would recommend drug abuse programs or if property was damaged she would recommend restitution.

“It’s important to listen, be respectful, and expect more. My job was changing lives, to be enabling,” explained Bev.

Bev quoted her favorite quote by Goethe, “If you treat a man as he is he will remain as he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.” That is her philosophy. “If you expect more it will affect change.”

Judge Tim Slavin wrote, “You are without question, one of the most caring, energetic, creative and firm, but fair, people to have served in the judicial system anywhere, anytime…you were never without a new idea to improve the rehabilitation of young offenders.”

Beverly joins her husband Larry already in retirement. He has been retired for 6-7 years from the State of Illinois and they are planning to visit Mike in Washington.

by Barb Benson, theCity1.com
December 26, 2003