Public Servants
Benjamin Osowiecki, probationary firefighter / emergency medical responder, has been with the Pea Ridge Fire-EMS Department for a year.
“I like that there is always something new to learn and practice,”Osowiecki said about working in Pea Ridge.“There is never a point where you will run out of new skills to master or tasks to complete. Additionally, Pea Ridge specifically has many people that also work for surrounding departments and bring their back to this department. This provides a unique opportunity to tap into the wealth of knowledge of many departments all at once.
He said:“I think the best thing that has happened to me personally has been the number of people I’ve met. I moved down here last year from Windsor, Conn., with no family or friends in this area. Working with the department has connected me with many people who I would otherwise have never met, many of whom I now consider friends.
Osowiecki grew up in Windsor, Conn., a town of about 30,000 just outside of Connecticut’s capital.
“It was here that I became interested in becoming a firefighter as a child, inspired by Windsor’s sizable fire department, with over five stations, numerous apparatus of all classifications, and the personnel to staff it. Life took me in a somewhat different direction though, as I ended up attending Keene State College in Keene, N.H., where I attained a B.S. in Computer Science and met my now fiancé. After college and a brief stint in Wyoming, my fiancé and I went looking for places to live and work. Northwest Arkansas offered the jobs and living environment we were looking for, and we chose Pea Ridge for a number of reasons including the country feel, and proximity to Bentonville. However my biggest reason was that I wanted to be able to join a fire department volunteer or part time, which as you can tell by my writing this, worked out.
“Thank you for your continued support of this fire department. Out town is going through major growth currently and with it grows our call volume and the expectations on the level of service we provide. As these demands grow, so too must our department. The groundwork for many of these changes is being laid now, such as our recent and continued push to staff our fire apparatus 24/7. However, these changes are impossible without your support. In essence, it would be impossible to fully support our community without the continued support of you and the rest of that same community.”
The TIMES is honoring the public servants — police, fire, ambulance — who serve this community 24-hours a day, seven days a week 365 days a year to provide a safe, pleasant community in which to live.