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13209 100th Ave. • Villard, MN • 320-352-3894

Villard Fire Department

PHOTO SUBMITTED The Villard Fire Department members are 1st Assistant Chief Randy Rost (front, from left Lynn Peterson, William Malecha, Steven Koppen, Cody Gulbranson, Chris Bryce, Bernie Bryce, David Tauber Jr., Matt Douvier, Kyle Reents, Fire Chief Patrick Pfeninger, Jonathan Malecha; (back, from left) Joe Walker, Adam Bryce, Devon Gahlon, Kyle Magnuson, Philip Jensen, Tim Jenks, Brady Gerdes, James Walker, Brent Werven, 2nd Assistant Chief Tom Pfeninger, Chad Gerdes, Ryan Gerdes. Not pictured is Jeff Piekarski.

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He and his fellow colleagues work 12-hour days, rotating monthly on whether they’re on nights or days. As much as possible, he said, he works to stay on the line with people in crisis. Th ough the job is a tough balance mentally, he said, there are always multiple things happening and multiple lines ringing in at once.

“We can’t just walk way, the phone keeps ringing,” he said. “If it’s a true emergency most people are fairly frantic.”

He works to calm the caller and get all the details. He puts himself on the scene mentally and asks their location, whether there are injuries, if it’s a fi re is there a lot of smoke?

On any given day, between two and four dispatchers are working in the Douglas County offi ce. Calls from any cellular phone or landline within the county boundary, come to them. Th ey parcel out the calls, forwarding highway calls to the state patrol for service.

“With the new phones, they locate pretty good,” he said. “Th e old fl ip phone might take longer but will (locate).”

Th e department receives calls on theft s, car accidents, minor car accidents, medicals. At the same time, they help police offi cers with background information on warrant checks and assist in traffi c stops.

One of the biggest areas of growth though, is mental health.

“I think the helping people part of it is big,” he said. “So much bad stuff happens to people…it’s tough sometimes, with all the suicides and death, and stuff we deal with, but we’re on the other end helping and we know that.”

Not only do dispatchers help people in mental health crisis, they must pay attention to their own mental health needs. When it comes to tragic situations, dispatchers are invited to the debriefi ngs of an event and the chief deputy or sheriff also checks in with them to see how they’re handling the fallout.

“It helps with the processing, in smaller towns we run across a lot (of instances) where it’s our neighbors or friends – it helps process that,” he said.

All dispatchers receive three to six months of on-the-job training, he said. He’s a trainer for the county and said he sits side-byside with newbies, answering calls and responding. He’ll also have his trainees listen to tapes of stressful calls so they can hear the dispatcher response and how they worked to calm and assess the situation. Th en, the trainee begins to handle calls themselves with the trainer there for support. But, he said, when true emergencies come in, the mentor takes control.

“If we have a baby not breathing, we’re not going to let a trainee handle that,” he said.

Dispatchers are trained in emergency medical response and can provide instructions over the phone to walk someone through performing CPR.

“It takes a mentally strong person to get through a lot of it,” Polipnick said.

It’s something he grew up with.

Polipnick’s father Jim was the assistant fi re chief and Polipnick spent a lot of time in the fi re hall growing up, then went on to follow his dad’s lead. Keith served on the Sauk Centre Fire Department for 22 years, serving fi ve years as chief and worked as an EMT for Sauk Centre for six years. He worked as a dispatcher for another county before coming to Douglas County 15 years ago.

“It’s a tough job but everybody I work with loves it, they’re all very professional and work hard,” he said. “It’s very rewarding, that’s what keeps us going.”

s to tragic situa nvited to the dend the chief depcks in with them dling the fallout. e processing, in across a lot (of ur neighbors or ss that,” he said. eceive three to -job training, er for the s side-bynswering g. He’ll listen alls so atchthey ssess the ndle the ort. rue the not oing that,” ained in sponse and can over the phone ugh performing ly strong person of it,” Polipnick grew up with. Jim was the assiswork with loves it, theyre all very professional and work hard,” he said. “It’s very rewarding, that’s what keeps us going.”

* Try to get your bearings as you call in an emergency. Tell the dispatcher where you’re located, use landmarks or mile markers to help get your bearings. The more information the dispatcher has, the better. Stay calm. The dispatcher has to spend valuable time calming people down enough to understand what they’re saying. If you’ve witnessed a car accident, you can assist the dispatcher in knowing how many people are involved and what their level of injury might be. If someone else has stopped to help the victims at a crash site, even the third- or fourthperson calling dispatch may have seen a diff erent angle on the accident, which gives dispatchers a better idea of what happened and who they may need to send.

PHOTOS SUBMITTED Douglas County Dispatcher Keith Polipnick served 22 years with the Sauk Centre Fire Department.

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