O'NEILL FIRE DEPARTMENT
ANNUAL STEAK NIGHT HELD

6/11/07

KBRX News - The O'Neill Fire Department held their annual steak night on Saturday, June 9. After dinner, President Ron Schmidt welcomed everyone and recognized the evening's guests. Fire Chief Rod Ludemann gave a recap of the department's activities in the last year. The department responded to 330 ambulance runs, 75 fires, including 32 fires in 30 days last summer, and 26 car accidents. They sent crews to help at the Valentine and Harrison fires and had storm spotters out in weather incidents. He stated that the department had logged over 4,000 total man hours in training, responses to fires and meetings combined.

Certificates of completing 83 classroom hours of training in Firefighter I course were presented to: Cris Slack, Terry Miles, Jeremy Johnson, Rachel Kohlman, Adam Kurts, Robert Miller and Matt Schmitz. When they complete the testing for this course, they will be recognized by the State of Nebraska as Certified Firefighte I personell.

Recognized for their years on the department were:

1 Year... Adam Kurtz and Jeremy Johnson

5 Years...Brenda Graham, Chad Thompson, Mike Marvin, Larry Finley and Kevin Balderson

10 Years...Terry Miles

15 Years... Matt Bauer

20 Years...Roger Miller, John Schindler, Dale Waterman and Gary Pistulka

Named EMT of the Year was Rachel Kohlman and Cris Slack was named Firefighter of the Year.

Mayor Bill Price read a proclamation recognizing Jim Rodman for his 41 years of dedication to the fire department and the City of O'Neill, and designated June 9, 2007 as Jim Rodman Day in O'Neill.

Assistant Fire Chief Roger Miller was also recognized for 15 years as Assistant Fire Chief and was thanked for his commitment and dedication to the department in that role.

Jerry McGinn of Lincoln, formerly of O'Neill, was the speaker for the evening. Jerry was on the Lincoln Fire Department for several years and holds an insight to the time, dedication and commitment it takes to be a member of the volunteer fire and rescue squads. He noted that the O'Neill Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department is recognized as one of the highest quality squads in the state.