Document - Historical information/data - Fire Chief Mike Scott Swearing in First Full Time Firefighters - 3/6/2018Mayor and Council
Tonight is a rather historic night
It will be the first time in the 55 year history of the Eagan Fire Department that we are
swearing in fulltime firefighters and captains.
For the majority of our 55 years of operation, we were staffed by volunteer or paid-on-call
staff.
Eagan like many cities across the nation is struggling with our ability to provide a sustainable
staffing model with only volunteer staff.
In 2014 we were awarded a SAFER grant- which stands for staffing adequately for emergency
response- We ranked 14th in the nation for need based on our city demographics and our
staffing model at that time.
With this grant we hired five fulltime staff and reassigned our one fulltime fire inspector to the
fulltime operational fire staff.
The grant paid for the staffing for two years and in 2016 you authorized funding to continue
these six firefighters in their positions.
Last year we completed a staffing study that recommended that Eagan start to hire additional
full-time firefighters and change our Pad-on-call staff to part-time staff
This would create a fire department staffed by a combination of full-time and part-time staff
and help provide a more sustainable, reliable and predictable response to fire and EMS calls to
our community
On April 2nd for the first time in our history we will have fire staff on duty 24 hours a day, 7
days a week 365 days a year.
Tonight we are going to swear in the original six firefighters from the SAFER grant that we had
not sworn in due to their temporary status with the grant funding and our newest six
firefighters who started March 5th and are currently attending their fire training academy.
The first six firefighters are now our first full-time fire captains. I’d like to introduce them to
you and swear them in first.
1. Captain TC Schellinger – Hired as an Eagan POC (paid-on-call) Firefighter January
of 2006, he was a member of our dorm program, served as our FT Fire Inspector
and promoted to full-time Captain in June of 2016.
2. Captain Jon Kemp- Hired as an Eagan POC Firefighter in September 2008,
member of our dorm program, SAFER grant firefighter May of 2014 and promoted
to full-time Captain February 2018.
3. Captain Nate Voye- Hired as an Eagan POC Firefighter November 2007, SAFER
grant firefighter June 2014 and promoted to full-time Captain February 2018.
4. Captain Mike Winters- Hired as an Eagan POC September 2010, member of our
dorm program, SAFER grant firefighter May 2014 and promoted to full-time
Captain February 2018.
5. Captain Jake McPherson- Hired as an Eagan POC September 2008, hired as a full-
time firefighter November 2016 and promoted to full-time Captain February
2018.
o Captain Dale Stein- Mendota Heights POC Firefighter- Hired with Eagan in May
2014 as a SAFER grant Firefighter, promoted to full-time Captain April 2015.
Next I’d like to introduce our newest six full-time firefighters and swear them in as well.
o Firefighter Tim Keller- Hired as an Eagan POC September 2014- worked at Abbott
Hospital in the ER
o Firefighter Tyler Haege- Hired as a Eagan POC firefighter September 2015-
Student enrolled in Medic program
o Firefighter Jason Marshall- Hired as an Eagan POC firefighter January 2015-
Worked for Wells Fargo as an automation lead
o Firefighter Jessica Hoffman- Hired as a Eagan POC firefighter September 2014-
Degrees in biology and science worked in the medical field
o Firefighter Matt Forse- Hired as an Eagan POC firefighter January 2004- worked
for the City of Rosemount Public Works
o Firefighter Joe Ahlstrom- Hired as an Eagan POC September 2015- in our dorm
program- student enrolled in medic program and was employed with an
ambulance provider.