Nicholas Maslanka traded his cleaning company business for a chance to be a police officer.
Maslanka, 26, said he wants to be a police officer “mostly to serve and protect.”
“(I wanted) to do something that’s more fulfilling, something bigger than myself,” he said.
He and wife Anna had owned the Dirty Birds Cleaning Service in Palatine.
“It was fun. We had some employees. We ended up selling the business. We were helping our clients but we weren’t getting fulfillment out of it,” he said after he was sworn in during the Dec. 11 meeting of the Countryside City Council.
The company’s name was a play on their own personal history.
He and Anna met while students at Illinois State University, whose sports teams are named the Redbirds.
They both opted for a career in law enforcement. She graduated from the police academy on Dec. 13, and he will soon begin schooling there for his new job. Anna will be with the Downers Grove Police Department.
Maslanka, who grew up in Oak Lawn, is a graduate of Brother Rice High School.
His first day with the Countryside Police Department was Dec. 16. He starts at the academy on Jan. 6.
He was sworn in by Mayor Sean McDermott. The hiring of Maslanka puts the department at full staffing for the first time since June, Police Chief Paul Klimek said.
“We’re happy that we are fully staffed now, 24 sworn-in officers. That’s pretty good,” Klimek said.