CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) -- Fewer than 20 full-time Lake County employees have applied for an early retirement package despite the county's threat to eliminate 150 full-time government jobs by the end of the year.

"Some employees in their 80s have told me they can't afford to retire," said Diane Young, the county's insurance coordinator. "If you can't afford to retire when you are 85, when can you?"

Lake County Council President Larry Blanchard said the early retirement program was an effort to reduce county health care costs and reduce staff amid state-mandated property tax caps and declining revenues because of the recession. The federal Medicare program pays most health insurance costs for part-time employees older than 65 and for all retirees.

"I guess we haven't made the early retirement program attractive enough, but we can't force people to retire, either," Blanchard said.

Employment records for the state's second-most populous county indicate 182 employees, or about 11 percent, are 65 or older. About 75 are in their 70s.

"I like my job and like the people I work with," said Martine "Marty" Vegenas, a 70-year-old chief court administrator. "So I will do my job as long as I can do it and still go home and cook dinner every night."

Two who are retiring are 71-year-old Public Works Director William Henderson and his wife, 70-year-old Beth Henderson, secretary to the Lake County Government Complex building superintendent. They will take with them 102 years of public service when they leave next month.

County commissioners, who employ William Henderson, said his job became redundant after they combined the Public Works Department with the Highway Department, as recommended by a 2007 cost-cutting study funded by private businesses.

Webster Smith, deputy director for the Indianapolis division of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said counties cannot establish a mandatory retirement age except for law enforcement jobs.

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Information from: The Times, http://nwitimes.com

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