TodayTask force leans toward regional fire authority for central Cumberland County
Members of the Regional Emergency Services Task Force want to get advice from an area that has implemented a similar plan before proceeding.
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Article RatingWhen it comes to forming a regional fire authority in central Cumberland County, members want to make sure they look carefully before they leap.
About 20 people gathered Saturday morning for a Regional Emergency Service Task Force (RESTF) meeting to determine whether local governments and volunteer fire departments in Carlisle, Mt. Holly Springs, and Dickinson and South Middleton townships are interested in cooperating on such an authority.
The answer was a cautious yes.
“We need to do it now, in my opinion,” said Carlisle Fire Chief Robert Kennedy. “Otherwise it’s just going to fade.”
Such an authority was one idea brought up by an $89,000 study the group commissioned in 2006 after a company offered to donate land straddling Dickinson and South Middleton townships for a fire station.
At RESTF Chairman Bryan Gembusia’s request, Kennedy started the meeting with a presentation of what he thought an authority might look like. The basic framework showed an authority with an office and three full-time employees, at an initial cost of about $367,000 per year.
That cost would include some equipment, Kennedy said, noting that the dollar figure could decrease with “in kind” donations of command vehicles and other items. Over time, he said, the annual cost would rise to about $2.5 million, which he said would be a savings over the $4.7 million it would cost to have a paid firefighters staff the municipalities.
Kennedy acknowledged there are some tensions in the situation, which he gave merely as a discussion-starter.
“The municipalities have been receiving good fire protection for a fraction of the cost,” he said. In today’s situation, “The free cow is dead.”
But at the same time, he noted, “The fire companies have not answered to anyone in the past.” Now that they’re receiving public funds, he said, “The free ride has come to an end.”
Attendees agreed that change of some sort is necessary.
Randy Watts, co-emergency coordinator in South Middleton Township, likened the current situation between departments to “tribal warfare” and used a recent call that “did not go well” as an example.
“We don’t have enough manpower,” Watts said, pointing out that although some of the response numbers may appear fine, a hard look at how many of those firefighters are effective is pretty scary. “We’re going to pay with our people if we don’t fix it.”
“Training is pretty much standard” across the area, said Ted Wise, Cumberland County director of public safety. “Compliance and standards are not.”
“I know we’re at a place where we have to do something,” said Dickinson Township Fire Chief Ivan Bretzman. But, he said, as a taxpayer, he was worried. More financial responsibility for fire departments is by far not the only increase municipalities face.
“I just think we’re moving a little too fast for our own good,” Bretzman said.
Others also had concern about the financial costs of the equation — how much the municipalities would have to chip in and what guidelines would keep that equitable. They also warned that the departments do not want to lose their heritage and independent identities, and that if volunteers are not on board with any changes they may just quit.
At the same time, however, the companies pointed out that the current state of the economy will make their current level of fund-raising even more difficult. Dan Wyrick, vice chairman of the Dickinson Township board of supervisors, pointed out that creating an authority and securing more funding from municipalities doesn’t necessarily mean that the companies will no longer be responsible to provide any of their own funding — just that it would take some of the pressure off them.
“Before anybody would give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to this idea, it has to be fleshed out,” said Frank Rankin, Carlisle Borough Council member. Municipalities won’t hand out money until there’s a plan they can inspect, Rankin said, and companies aren’t going to sign the dotted line until they know what that would mean for them.
With that said, RESTF members decided to would be prudent to get some advice from a fire authority in Centre County that has been doing what RESTF is contemplating for a number of years now.
“If they look at us and say, ‘You guys are just crazy,’ well, we’ve heard that before,” said Gembusia. Members agreed that RESTF would contact the authority and try to have some representatives come down for a meeting with the group before the end of the year.
“Hopefully, something will be in place for 09,” Gembusia said, even if it’s just a preliminary agreement.
