Town of Lake Mills police chief resigns

LAKE MILLS - After about a year of serving the Town of Lake Mills, Chief of Police Mick Selck has submitted his resignation effective mid-May or upon the hire of a new chief.

Selck began his career in 1991 as an Assistant Correctional Officer with the Winona County Sheriff's Department, soon after working for the City of Onalaska. He relocated to Lake Mills in 1994, becoming a Sergeant in 1996, Captain in 2013 and Chief in 2019, a position he stepped down from in 2022.

Six months later, in January of 2023, Selck was rehired as Police Chief for the Town, accomplishing his lifelong goal of working his way up the law enforcement chain.

“This actually helped me fulfill my dream of being Chief twice,” he said. “I like to think this opportunity helped me fulfill a dream, but not in the way I had expected. That is really how life works, though- it never turns out like you think it will.”

After his first retirement in 2022, he decided he was done working in law enforcement for good. Six months later, he was surprised to find himself taking on another Chief position, a path he envisioned for himself from a young age.

“I hadn't had any intent to go back into law enforcement. I even got rid of some of my stuff,” he said. “But I also saw it as kind of a challenge. It was something different. And if I go way back in time, my plan had always been, if you'd asked me in my twenties, that I was going to become a chief somewhere, retire and then get a chief job somewhere else.”

As a current member of the Board of Directors with The Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation, Selck plans to remain locally involved in Jefferson County, understanding the importance of community-based organizations.

“I was with the Rotary Club for a long time and really enjoyed that. I was the president there and became assistant governor, so I actually oversaw regional presidents in Lake Mills, Watertown, Jefferson, Stoughton and Fort Atkinson, which was pretty fulfilling.”

Selck said he enjoyed serving the Lake Mills community, deeming it “a really nice area to work in.”

“It's been an honor to serve the citizens of Lake Mills,” he said. “We didn’t take out a high volume of complaints or calls, and the ones we did were generally simple to deal with… It's a nice community, and watching the town board work, I can see they have some dedicated people who are trying very hard to serve the citizens in their Township. It's pretty thankless, so hats off to them for putting in the hours and the time.”

April 28 marked the end of the department’s hiring process, Selck said, and before he leaves for good he hopes to stick around to help with the training process.

“My intent is, if they allow it, to stay on board and show the new Chief where we're at and what still needs to be done. Then I’ll step aside and be done with my law enforcement career,” Selck said.

After all is said and done, Selck looks forward to concentrating on his role as a contracted service provider with Jefferson County Human Services, which he took on in October of 2022.

Resigning from his role as Chief will hopefully allow him more time to focus on his goal of mentoring youth with special needs across Jefferson County, he said.

“I was doing both jobs for over a year, and I've got a full complement of clients… doing both jobs just takes up a little more time than I would like. Even though I'm working, I would still like to feel a little bit retired.”

His passion for helping kids stems from being an older brother, he said, which blossomed when he joined the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program, a youth-oriented initiative with a Madison location that “helps children realize their potential and build their futures.”

“[My brother’s] mom has told me that the time I spent with him was important. That really dovetailed right into [my current] career field… I interviewed for the position, and I got it, and it's been going well. It's fulfilling, difficult, heartbreaking- but you know, someone's gotta do it.”

As an avid traveler, Selck also hopes to see more of the world with his newfound free time. To keep himself busy during his first retirement, he recalled a need to hit the road and wants to keep that momentum going.

“When I retired, I was bored within a couple of months,” he said. “I mean, on my first day of retirement I was on the road to Niagara Falls and Maine and Boston… Then I got home and flew to Iceland two weeks later.”

Aside from hiking an active volcano in Iceland, Selck has swam with whale sharks in Mexico, visited over seven national parks in Kenya and Tanzania, woke up with a hippopotamus in his backyard overseas and once came face-to-face with lions on a safari. He has also traveled domestically to both coasts, visiting several states in between.

While he’s not totally sure where he’ll go next, not knowing has always been part of the journey, he said.

“We're talking about possibly going to Uganda to see the gorillas in the mountains. Australia, Hawaii, Galapagos Islands- those are probably our top four,” he said.

He and his girlfriend, Kelly, bond over the Disney movie “Up” in which 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen fulfills a dream of ambitious travels following the tragic loss of his wife, Ellie. To Selck, the film serves as a reminder to chase your dreams, going so far as to name his recently-adopted puppy Ellie as a tribute.

“I love that movie. We kind of base our lives off that movie, because they didn't do a lot of the traveling they dreamed about. But we are.”

Along with Kelly, Selck hopes to keep traveling with his sons, Ethan and Barrett, while carrying fond memories of his time in Lake Mills wherever he goes.

“I enjoyed my time with the town,” he said. “I learned some new things, and hopefully I made a few worthwhile changes that will make the environment a little bit better.”