CROWN POINT | Lake County employees in the autumn of their years aren't falling in bunches off the payroll tree as officials prepare to downsize government.

Fewer than 20 full-time county employees are taking their pensions in response to the lure of an early retirement package or the threat to eliminate 150 full-time government jobs by year's end, Diane Young, insurance coordinator, said last week.

Records indicate 182 employees -- about 11 percent of the county's payroll -- have celebrated their 65th birthday.

Some 75 are septuagenarians, like Martine "Marty" Vegenas, the 70-year-old chief administrator for Superior Court Judge Sheila Moss

"I like my job and like the people I work with, "Vegenas said. "So I will do my job as long as I can do it and still go home and cook dinner every night."

Five county workers are a grizzled 80-somethings. The oldest was born in 1924, the same year President Calvin Coolidge delivered the first radio broadcast from the White House.

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

Porter County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger said the county has no mandatory retirement age for its employees, nor any early retirement offers for employees.

Lake County Council President Larry Blanchard said Friday, "I guess we haven't made the early-retirement program attractive enough, but we can't force people to retire, either."

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 his Public Works Department with the Highway Department, as recommended by the Good Government Initiative, a 2007 cost-cutting study funded by private businesses.

Blanchard said the early-retirement program was an effort to reduce county health care costs. The federal Medicare program picks up the bulk of health insurance costs for part-time employees older than 65 and all retirees. The county also is cutting staff because of state-mandated property tax caps and declining revenue linked to the recession.

"We used to have a lot more senior employees than that," said Young, the county insurance coordinator. "Eleanor Ingram, a bookkeeper in our office, is 85, and she does a wonderful job and gets around better than I do."

Webster Smith, deputy director for the Indianapolis division of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said outside of law enforcement jobs, "You can't establish a mandatory retirement age."

There also are no seniority rules protecting employees from the budget ax, Blanchard said.

Commissioner Gerry Scheub, who turned 74 last month, said senior employees are kept on because their experience and knowledge is valued, and there is less security or rest at home in old age, anymore.

"I can't see forcing anyone to retire." Scheub said. "Times are hard for everybody, so nobody really wants to leave. I was going to retire at one time and I took a year off, but that was very hard on me because I really enjoy it. I start at 7:30 a.m., and there are a lot of night meetings, so I'm on call 24 hours a day. I don't know if my wife is ready for me to be home 24 hours a day."