The Paynesville City Council recently approved the hiring of Ken Reiman, Paynesville.Reiman is a native of Benson and has worked in Paynesville for 11 years. He is presently employed at NAPA.
“I feel being a fireman is a good way to serve the community,” he said. As a new fireman, Reiman will be taking training courses twice a week through March in Eden Valley.
Reiman and his wife, Patricia, have three children: Andrew, 6; Kayla, 4; and Nicholas, 21 months.
Reiman lists as his hobbies playing golf, riding bike, and fishing.
Reiman is the third new fireman approved last year. Approved in October were Boyd Hengl and Dave Lang. The Paynesville Area Fire Department is still short of volunteers after the recent retirement of Cecil Louis and Dean Bahr. Between the two men, they had served on the department 46 years.
In the last 20 years, since the two men started on the fire department, the department has purchased four fire trucks (tanker, pumper, rescue van, and grass fighting rig), built a new fire hall, made training more specified, changed fire fighting tactics with the use of self- contained breathing apparatus, became more involved in rescue calls and most recently, purchased an infra-red CairnsIRIS unit to help detect hot spots.
Fire Chief Jim Freilinger, 20-year veteran of the department, said the requirements are not strict. Interested volunteers need to fill out an application form, have an oral interview with the personnel committee, live within a two-mile radius of the fire hall, pass a physical endurance test, pass a physical medical exam, and attend training classes.
“It is tougher to get firefighters who can respond to daytime fires,” Freilinger said. Volunteers working in Paynesville are an asset. With our mobile society, many people’s work takes them outside the community.”
Freilinger said the use of pagers have made it easier to alert firemen to fire calls instead of relying upon telephone calls.
“We are always looking for new people,” Freilinger said.