South Haven Area Emergency Services has announced the winners of its annual awards and is reflecting on 30 years of growth following its annual banquet on Saturday.
SHAES Director Brandon Hinz tells us the agency started in 1996 as the city of South Haven and the townships of Casco, Geneva and South Haven came together to consolidate fire and ambulance services.
“Looking back 30 years, it was probably a pretty — I wouldn’t say a wild plan — but authorities weren’t very popular in this area, especially in the area of fire service,” Hinz said. “So as the years have went on, looking back at how far we’ve came, it was probably a pretty big deal back then to do such a thing, but it’s worked out great.”
Hinz says the number of calls grows each year and SHAES has seen a lot of change since 1996.
“We had a remodel at our main station here in town. We constructed a new station out in Casco Township. We constructed a station out in Geneva Township, because at the time when SHAES began, three townships and the city all pooled their resources together, and we needed to spread out a little bit.”
Hinz says SHAES in 2025 took 2,920 calls, 899 of which were fire-related and the rest being medical. That was a record year, and he notes the call volume typically grows by about 4% each year.
It takes a lot of people to respond to all those calls, and this year’s Firefighter of the Year is Cody Sedlak, a ten-year veteran of the agency. Hinz says Sedlak started out as a paid-on-call member in 2016.
“He was hired on as a career member in 2019 and has been a very solid employee, very committed to the organization, and he’s kind of our go-to person. If I need something done, I’ll throw the task at him. He gets it done, then looking for the next thing.”
Hinz says Sedlak is a firefighter and paramedic who also works as a mechanic fixing SHAES equipment. He estimates Sedlak has saved the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars over the years.
The SHAES Leadership Award was presented to firefighter/paramedic Paul Pant. Hinz says Pant has taken the lead in securing outside financial support for the department and has advocated for the mental health needs of members.
“Paul’s been a very, very solid employee and has a ton of ownership in this organization, especially for someone that’s only been here for such a short time.”
Also at the banquet, Years of Service pins were presented to several members: Allan Overhiser, with 40 years; Tom Renner, with 35 years; Ross Stein and Brad Filbrandt, with 30 years; and Cody Sedlak, with 10 years. And Hinz says a fun highlight of the banquet was the formal swearing-in ceremony of the cadets. They are Scott Ritchie, Alyssa Ockerman, Nick Rainey, Brenden Cramer and Payton Haner. The ceremony was held at the very beginning of the banquet because several cadets needed to leave to attend their high school prom.
Hinz says as SHAES moves into three decades of fire and ambulance service, he wants to thank the community for all of its support.
“I’m reminded of it on at least a weekly basis, if not a daily basis, hearing from folks that we might have helped, whether it was an EMS call or a fire call or just a good intent call. We have all of our folks here in this organization care a lot for our community that we serve. And I hope that shows. I’m positive that it shows just from the feedback that I get from our community members. I’m very, very proud of that and very thankful for all the support that we get.”
Photo, left to right: Paul Pant, Leadership Award recipient; Brandon Hinz, SHAES Executive Director; Cody Sedlak, Firefighter of the Year.
