Featured Member of the Month

Engineer Scott Borwig was born in Waterloo Iowa September 19, 1963. John F. Kennedy was the President of the United States. Soon he was to be the oldest of 6 kids, and they all lived in a small house in Evansdale, Iowa. Their big brother would blaze a trail for the rest to follow his lead. Scott’s dad worked construction, and Mom stayed at home. A few years ago at Christmas Scott’s sister and him were looking through some old photos together. He will never forget her remark, "Did you know we were poor growing up?" As they sat there looking at the old photos they all resembled orphaned children. None of Scott’s brothers or sister ever felt that way. They played ball, took vacations and celebrated the holidays just like everyone else.

Scott attended 1st through the 8th grade at St. Nicholas and St. Johns Catholic school. 9th grade he attended Bunger Jr. High in Evansdale. Go Bobcats. High school would find Scott becoming a Trojan back in Waterloo where he attended East High School…most days. After high school he attended Hawkeye Community College and studied Sales and Marketing and in his free and sometimes not so free time he spent time playing on the hill in Cedar Falls.

During a semester break Scott left Iowa to visit a friend in Dallas, TX. While in Dallas he started a job with Target in management. He spent about 5 years with Target and helped open a few stores for the chain. Scott had the chance once to meet Sam Walton in Denton, TX at one of their grand openings. Montgomery Ward recruited him to come work for them in the Dallas area, so for a few years he said good bye to shopping carts and hello to stores with escalators and a mall gate. Scott transferred with Montgomery Ward to Des Moines to work at the Merle Hay Mall location. At Montgomery Ward he was the Home Store manager which includes house wares, furniture, and custom window coverings. One day Scott’s Hunter Douglas sales rep stop in my store and asked,"How's it goin?" To which he replied "It sucked and that I wanted her job." So that's what happened, she wanted to get off the road and work in the office and he received her position as a sales rep for Designer Blinds of Omaha. Scott’s sales territory includes Iowa, southern Minnesota, and most of South Dakota.

In 1990 Scott moved from Ankeny to Polk City and has been there ever since. He joined the Polk City Fire Department in 1991. At that time most of the department responding to a call would do so in their own vehicle and they really had no EMS gear. All of the vehicles were white. Here is Scott’s claim to fame on the department. During his first year on the department they were still in the old station (which is now city hall). There were two overhead doors but the vehicles were parked 3 across. On a Friday night Scott was preparing to work at the High School football game. He started moving vehicles out of the station to get too the ambulance in the center of the garage, and then started putting the vehicles not being use back into the station. As he got out of the ambulance he heard a hissing sound and thought he ran over a nail! Nope the tires were all good. As he looked up he noticed he had backed into the overhead heater for the garage and the hissing sound that he heard was the gas pipe he just broke. That only lasted a few seconds before the flames started! Scott vaguely remembers Tim Cory calling 911 to report a fire at the fire station! Then it was a mad scramble to get all of the vehicles out of the station. Way to go rookie!

While on the department Scott has held the following positions, Rescue Captain, Fire Captain, and Assistant Fire Chief. Scott also carries the following certifications: Firefighter I, Firefighter II, Hazardous Materials Operations, Driver/Operator-Pumper and Emergency Medical Technician-Basic. Some of his best friends are because of the relationships built during his time with PCFD and at times he feels closer to his brothers and sisters on the fire department than that of his own family. Many people on the fire department have seen weddings and the birth of each other’s children as time goes by.

Scott has been married to his beautiful wife Susanne for 11 years now. His son Michael is attending school at the University of Northern Iowa, and is getting married this May. His daughter Caitlin is a junior at Jesup High School in northeastern Iowa, and his son Chad is playing Xbox upstairs in his room when not attending North Polk High School. Some of his favorite things to do when not putting the wet stuff on the red stuff includes, reading anything by James Patterson or John Grisham, riding his Harley, (still waiting for a few more members to get a bike), hunting, fishing, and hanging with his friends. Mostly Scott loves to laugh! “With you or at you it’s fun either way!” He only wishes he could all do it a little more.

If you would like to learn even more about Engineer Scott Borwig you can email him at Scott.Borwig@polkcityfd.com.

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