Honors for local emergency services community

Every year for the last 27 years, members of the local emergency services have gathered for two days of training, networking and celebrating during the Cook County Emergency Services Conference. This year’s event included a variety of training opportunities, ranging from classroom studies to entering the frigid Lake Superior waters or a burning building. The two days event finishes with dinner and a speaker, along with some awards for those who have made major contributions to emergency services.

One of the awards goes to someone who is not an emergency provider, but to someone who lends tremendous support to the emergency responders it the region. The award was first given in 2003 to award namesake, Dolly Johnson. Dolly was a dispatcher in the Cook County Sheriff’s Office and was a great friend to all emergency workers.

This year the award in her honor goes to a couple—John and Rose Schloot of Cross River Lodge on the Gunflint Trail.
The Schloots were recognized for their work in feeding the emergency workers in the region during several major events, such as the Ham Lake wildfire and a multi-day search for a missing man. The Schloots have also served up food for fundraisers, including the 10-year anniversary gathering commemorating the Ham Lake wildfire.

Emergency Management Director Valerie Marasco invited Dolly Johnson’s daughter, Kelly Roberts, up to present the award.
Marasco next presented the Cook County Emergency Provider of the Year Award to Keck Melby. Melby has been involved in Cook County emergency services for decades, as a member of the Hovland Volunteer Fire Department, a Cook County Ambulance crew member and as the developer of the traffic safety program known as the STOP program. Melby spent countless hours bringing the national STOP program to the community, tailoring it our rural road system and departments.

A third award was presented this year, the Career Achievement Award, which was given to Cook County’s former Emergency Management Director, Nancy Koss. Koss now lives in Hermantown, but was invited to attend this year’s conference to accept the award, which was given in recognition of her 17 years as emergency management director, during which time she oversaw the county department through a number of crisis situations, such as the 1995 Sag Corridor Fire, the July 1999 blowdown, the Alpine Lake fire of 2005, the Famine and Cavity Lake fires of 2006 and the devastating 75,851-acre Ham Lake fire.

And perhaps of most interest to many in attendance, Koss was the person who launched the comprehensive weekend of training for Cook and Lake counties, as well as Canada, that is now a fixture in the emergency services community.

Koss expressed appreciation for the award and said she was pleased to see that the county had continued the conference and some of the other measures initiated during her tenure. She said, “I think you are headed in the right direction.”

For more information about the conference, or to learn how you could help our local emergency services, call Director Valerie Marasco at Cook County Emergency Management at 218-387-3059.