Pennsylvania Fire Department Quits
Source Courtesy Daily and Sunday Review, Towanda PA
Volunteers with the fire department began moving what they said was the property of the fire company out of the fire hall around 9:30 p.m., shortly after the supervisors' regular meeting had ended.
Many of the residents and Supervisor Chairman Charles Davis had left the hall when the decision was made to abandon the fire hall by a vote from fire department members.
The volunteers removed tables, chairs, the bingo board, kitchen appliances, curtains, fire equipment and all of the fire department's fire trucks, all of which Fire Chief Doug Soden said belonged to the fire department.
The items will be stored in a tractor trailer and the trucks will be stored in another location for now. Soden said he did not know where the fire department would permanently store its trucks or other equipment.
Soden said the fire department did not want to leave the township, but does not feel the supervisors or the residents have supported them or want the department in the township.
"We really hate to do this, but I think this is the only thing that is going to wake them up," Soden said of the supervisors and others he said have fought against the fire department.
A legal battle and verbal battles have been ongoing between the fire department and the supervisors off and on for approximately two years. The latest battle led to the supervisors passing a resolution to rescind an earlier agreement with the fire company that gave the volunteers a 99-year lease on the fire hall.
Officials with the fire company said during the supervisors' meeting Monday that from what they gathered from a recent meeting with Dean Fernsler, a representative of the Pennsylvania Department of Community Affairs, the supervisors could not legally pass a resolution to break the contract.
On Monday, Supervisor Charles Davis said this was not the impression he had received from a meeting of the supervisors, the fire department, Fernsler and each side's attorneys.
Fernsler could not be reached for comment Monday night due to the late hour the meeting ended.
Davis offered his own solution to the ongoing battle between the two sides, saying he had received the suggestion at a recent meeting between supervisors and officials from some of the surrounding volunteer fire departments.
Davis said he felt the two sides should set aside all past agreements, including the 99-year lease, and start from the beginning, writing down five concerns each and then bringing them to the table to negotiate. He added that those negotiating should be the three supervisors and three representatives from the fire department.
Soden told Davis that he felt the board of supervisors should rescind its resolution to break the 99-year lease and then the fire department would return to the table to negotiate.
Davis said he did not feel that reinstating the 99-year lease would be the right way to begin the new negotiations. He also said, when asked by fire department member Gale Bowen, that the township would not pay the department $8,500 at this time. The $8,500 is money the fire department members said the supervisors agreed in the past to pay the company for fire protection.
Fire department members said the money was due this past June.
The Bradford County 911 service had heard of the possible decision by the fire department to leave the fire hall and the township last week, according to a letter sent to the supervisors on Jan. 30 from Jeff Overdorff, 911 coordinator for Bradford County.
Overdorff told the supervisors then that if the fire department were to pull out of a contract to cover the township the supervisors will be responsible to find fire protection for the residents.
"As the emergency dispatching service provided to the county residents, the 911 center needs to know what fire organization will be dispatched to provide fire protection to the residents of Windham Township," Overdorff told the supervisors in the letter.
As of late Monday night it was still unclear who will be dispatched to Windham Township if an emergency occurs.
Supervisor Ed Kaminsky said he did not know what the supervisors would do and that he did not believe the other supervisors yet know what will be done either.
Supervisor Chairman Charles Davis was unavailable for comment late Monday night and Supervisor Larry Brown was absent from Monday's meeting due to his recuperation from an illness.
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