Double Duty Badges

Double Duty Badges

When you drive into the city of Decatur, Illinois from the north-east on a summer night you will cross over an arched viaduct when you first see the brightly lit Staley plant. This is when a sickly sweet smell will hit you. Staley's processes mostly soy beans and corn. You would think that smell would choke a horse, but eventually you get used to it. Years later I picked up a badge worn by the Staley plant guards. Based on the badge's inscription I now know that the plant guards were also Macon County Special Deputies. The reason for this stems from WWII when it was thought that simple plant guards needed more authority to combat potential saboteurs. The second badge is an example of a city alderman who is also a county supervisor. This usually happens when the a city's aldermanic district shares the same boundries as a county supervisor's district. Here is an example of this from the City of Wausau, Wisconsin.