- Kerry Leeds – Captain
- Beth Ambrosen
- Pete Ongstad
- George Harrelson
- Paul Just
- Catherine Just
- Judi Vitek
- Dean Springer
- Michele Miller
Strategic Traffic Operations Program (STOP)
STOP – Responds to incidents where the management of vehicles; e.g. “traffic” along the highways within the district is necessary. STOP seeks to control and manage vehicles within the specific area of an emergency incident so as to prevent injury to persons and damage to property, and to establish a means to provide for the safe and efficient movement of vehicles through the incident scene so long as necessary. STOP, may on occasions and when appropriate, provide assistances to adjacent districts through a “mutual aid” request.
History of STOP
You may be interested to know the very first all-volunteer emergency incident traffic control team in Minnesota was formed right here in Hovland!
The Hovland S.T.O.P. team was founded in 2008 when Keck Melby and Shawn Perich recognized the danger fire fighters and medical responders face when responding to incidents along Hwy.61. They saw the need for traffic management while emergency responders are focused on the actual emergency. Keck developed a great training program for emergency incident traffic control, and has since taught many people how to keep an emergency scene safe for everybody. He also outfitted the department and several local volunteers with complete safety equipment. His STOP team has become an important part of the Hovland Volunteer Fire Dept.
STOP is an acronym for Safety Team – Operational Patrol. Our main focus is to make drivers aware that they need to be alert and slow down or stop as they approach an emergency incident. We take control of an incident area as our fire fighters and first responders take control of the real emergency. Here our mission is to prevent a bad situation from getting worse. We on the STOP team are proud of the program and our successful efforts in this mission.