In less than two weeks, the men and women who serve the South Haven Area Emergency Services team will hit a milestone anniversary, and they’ve received a grand symbol to mark that occasion thanks to a retired chief back when the unit transitioned to a multi-jurisdictional approach.
The department will mark a quarter-of-a-century serving the community on January 1st. To celebrate that milestone, a handcrafted large-scale replica of the SHAES logo was recently presented to the department for placement in the Blue Star Station.
Retired Chief Randy Van Wynen (shown on the left in the photo above) crafted the wooden logo featuring South Haven’s distinctive lighthouse with a lighted lamp room. He is pictured with Chief Brandon Hinz (shown on the right).
Van Wynen was Fire Chief during the transition from separate South Haven and Casco fire departments into the area authority that now provides the City of South Haven and the Townships of Casco, Geneva and South Haven with fire and emergency medical services from three stations. The South Haven Area Emergency Service was created on January 1, 1996, and is currently on target to set a record for responses in a calendar year. The record is 2,276 established four years ago in 2016.
The photo accompanying this story on Moody on the Market is courtesy of South Haven Professional Photographer Tom Renner.
