At the end of 2022, Tim Froeber retired as the Crookston Fire Department’s Fire Chief and appointed firefighter Shane Heldstab to succeed him. After two weeks of beginning work in the position and one week after being officially sworn in, Chief Heldstab gave an update about some of the changes he and the fire department have been going through since he took the new position.
Chief Shane Heldstab has been with the Crookston Fire Department for 11 years and has worked to be a major asset to the department, where he had worked closely and completed several trainings with former Department Chief Tim Froeber on multiple occasions. But, after officially beginning work as the Chief, Heldstab has seen a significant change in his everyday workday. “It’s been an adjustment, obviously, going from 24-hour shifts to an average workday. I guess that’s the way that it’s supposed to be designed as an eight-hour, Monday thru Friday stuff,” Crookston Fire Chief Shane Heldstab explained. “It’s kind of an adjustment. My wife laughs because I find any excuse I can to go down the station on the weekends too, but it’s a place I just love being there. I love being around there, and the guys are great.”
Heldstab explained that normally he would work a full 24-hour shift and then use the day off from the department to work on other assignments he had. Now he has to complete them after work or during the weekends instead. Another significant change to the job Heldstab has found is how much more behind-the-scenes work he has to do with the city and department with scheduling, meetings, and budgeting while leaving the other day-to-day activities to the other six active firefighters. “When we get a fire call, everybody that responds, that is my responsibility. My job now, realistically, isn’t to grab that hose line and charge into a fire. There will still be a desire to want to do that, but it’s a mental game, and I have to be able to take a step back and run the scene,” Heldstab explained. “We’ve got some experienced guys done there where I don’t foresee myself jumping in and taking over right away. We’ve got guys that are trained to run a scene, so I’m just going to step in and help. I can be the assistant on that stuff and help them as we move along. And if we get called into a position somewhere, I’ll make sure I get that done, and we do what we have to do.” Heldstab noted that there are still parts of the job that he still has to work on to understand but believes that he will make the necessary adjustments to do so over the next couple of months.
Before Froeber passed the position on to Heldstab, the two worked closely during December to help Heldstab transition from a firefighter to the Chief, with the most significant change being that Heldstab would have to step away from being a hands-on firefighter and more as a Chief. “The biggest advice he gave was understanding that you did have to step away from the hands-on stuff. The first day I came in there, he had a packet that was three pages, front, and back. As we even talked on the first day, he had a pen and was adding things to it to help me understand the scheduling, and he was just trying to bullet point and preface things to not overwhelm me,” Shane Heldstab explained. “I know within that first week, we got through that first page and were able to flip over to the second page. We talked about it a little bit, and maybe having a little more time would’ve been a bit more beneficial, but everything he laid out for me has been a carbon copy for me.” While former Chief Froeber has left officially left the department, he assured Heldstab that he can easily be reached if he ever needs help or has any questions about the positions, and Heldstab has said that he has met with Froeber several times already. Along with Froeber, several other members of City Hall and the city’s department heads have offered help in working with the city and the other departments to help the community and make Heldstab’s transition more manageable.
Chief Heldstab has only taken over the position of Crookston Fire Chief for two weeks but has already begun work on helping his fellow firefighters continue using systems the city has set to assist in keeping the community safe. “We are going to try to continue forging forward with what we have because we don’t have to reinvent the wheel on. We might adjust the focus on a couple of those things, but my focus will be the career development of these guys and making sure that the six guys there are getting what they need. If you look realistically at why a fire chief is there is because of the firefighters. I have to make sure that I take care of them and what they want and need. That’s one of my primary responsibilities.”
Chief Heldstab will now regularly attend Crookston City Council meetings on the second and fourth Monday of every month, but he and the Crookston Fire Department are always available to answer questions at the Crookston Fire House any time. If you have questions, wish to speak with Chief Heldstab or any of the other active firefighters, you can come down to the Crookston Fire House at 620 South Main Street or call them at 218-281-4584. To hear more about Heldstab’s experiences and thoughts on becoming the Crookston Fire Chief, you can go to kroxam.com, click on Community, and click on Valley Talk.
