Five municipalities, four township VFDs collaborate with DCED on fire service
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Firefighters work to stabilize a collapsed buliding at 15 N. Main St. in Washington on June 12, 2017.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Firefighters work at the collapsed building at 15 N. Main St. in Washington on June 12, 2017.
A Washington firefighter performs vehicle extrication training outside the city’s Tylerdale station last week.
Washington firefighters perform vehicle extrication training outside the city’s Tylerdale station last week.
Washington firefighters perform vehicle extrication training outside the city’s Tylerdale station last week.
Washington firefighters perform vehicle extrication training outside the city’s Tylerdale station last week.
Washington firefighters perform vehicle extrication training outside the city’s Tylerdale station last week.
A Washington firefighter performs vehicle extrication training outside the city’s Tylerdale station last week.
Five Washington County municipalities and their respective volunteer fire departments have engaged the state Department of Community and Economic Development to find partnership opportunities for fire service in the area.
The City of Washington, along with South Strabane, Canton, North Franklin and Chartiers townships and their four volunteer fire departments, make up the nine stakeholders that each have submitted letters of intent to the DCED for a fire services study to be conducted among the municipalities and their fire departments.
The study will “run the gamut” of opportunities for “effective, efficient, economic and equitable” fire service, according to Brandon Stanick, South Strabane Township manager. He said fire service is a “cost center” for the township, which has some paid firefighters and a volunteer department.
“We want to understand where we can partner with other agencies to find where we can benefit,” he said. “Everybody’s going to have different goals with this. It’s going to take some time because there are so many participants.”
The DCED, through the Governor’s Center for Local Government Services, will spend time in each municipality and with each fire department, evaluating their services, management, apparatus and equipment, and the feasibility of potential mergers, consolidation or regionalization.
The scope includes collecting and analyzing the departments’ financial and operational data, comparing that data with national trends and the National Fire Protection Agency’s standards, interviewing individuals in the departments and municipalities, and identifying “gaps and opportunities,” according to the Center for Local Government Services. They then will provide a report and recommendations to the nine stakeholders at no cost.
“These types of studies have been done all over the state, so we’re not reinventing the wheel here,” said Washington Mayor Scott Putnam. “We’re just looking at ways to make everybody’s community safer for fire protection services.”
The conversation started last year, when Washington officials reached out to the townships seeking potential partnership opportunities.
Putnam said that since Washington is the only department that’s entirely made up of paid firefighters, their department is frequently called out to assist in emergencies in neighboring townships. It especially happens during the day, he said, when volunteers are unable to leave their day jobs to respond to a call.
He said that while the city is, and always will be, willing to respond to calls for help, it’s “an obvious cost to the city with no monetary recourse for us.”
The city’s fire service budget is more than $1 million, Putnam said. It has about 25 paid firefighters.
“Our residents deserve that service that they’re paying for in taxes,” Putnam said. “We don’t want to see anybody lose their life or their safety. We need some way of being compensated when we’re the only ones there in daylight hours.”
City fire Chief Gerald Coleman said the fire departments involved in the DCED study already have been working together for years.
“Those imaginary boundaries need to go away,” Coleman said. “We go anywhere that we’re needed for help. Mayor and council have always supported that.”
Coleman and Putnam said they’d like to see some sort of “pool” of funds and manpower among the five municipalities, since the call volume and expense in fire service has increased and volunteer numbers are declining rapidly.
“It’s a different age now,” Coleman said. “Nobody can afford a full-time department on their own. We’re no different from anyone else as far as needing help.”
Coleman said partnerships could save money when it comes to purchasing equipment, apparatus or gear. It could also help relieve fundraising burdens from the volunteer departments, who already commit their spare time to training and responding to calls, he said.
“I think in this area we’re beyond expecting people to do this for free anymore,” Coleman said. “It’s not a hobby. Hunting is a hobby – firefighting and rescue is a job.”
Coleman said he believes all five departments have welcomed the idea of having the study done.
“These guys have worked hard to build their departments and have worked their butts off training to be good at this job,” he said. “I think they should embrace (regionalization) because it’s only going to be better.”
Canton Township recently tried a pay-per-call system to try to bring in more recruits, as well as tax incentives through Act 172. According to Chief Dave Gump, it hasn’t helped much. They have 10 active members, he said; four of them are interior firefighters. They average five firefighters per call, he said.
“We’re going to be pretty slim to none,” he said. “It’s become a very trying job. It wasn’t easy before, but at least you had people to help you. I’ve been doing this 43 years, and it’s sad to see.”
When asked if the township might need to consider hiring staff firefighters, Gump said it’s “going to come to that,” or some sort of regionalization with the other departments.
“We’re all right here beside each other and try to do things on our own,” he said. “It might be time to start combining those efforts.”
North Franklin fire Chief Dave Bane also said that they are typically short on manpower during the day. He said that while their call volume is up, their membership is the same and aging. They also rely heavily on fundraising and Bingo revenue to pay for training, equipment and building maintenance.
“When we’re short, it’s nothing for us to call for help from Canton, South Strabane, or the City of Washington,” he said. “I think it’s just a matter of tweaking what we’re already doing. We all realize we’re there for the same reason – to protect life and property.”
North Franklin Supervisor Bob Sabot said the township would be in favor of regionalizing fire and police services, as they recently disbanded their police department.
“Anything we can do to save the taxpayers money and provide better services,” he said.
He said the township would want to maintain a volunteer base for fire service, since “it’s worked” for them.
“Until we hear from the fire company otherwise, we would have no intention of changing that,” he said.
Chartiers Township Manager Jodi Noble also said her township would like to “support a volunteer base.” She said that just this year the township instituted a fire tax of 0.2 mills to help fund the volunteer fire department.
In 2019, the township anticipates giving about $210,000 to the volunteer department for various capital expenses. Last year the township helped the volunteers with the downpayment on a new rescue apparatus.
“It’s hard to ask volunteers to spend time fundraising when they’re already spending their time getting out of bed in the middle of the night to respond to calls. We ask a lot of them as it is,” she said. “That’s the purpose of this study, to look for ways we can work together to make things more economically feasible for all of us.”