Ben Avon ousts fire company

&emsp;&emsp;With effectively no notice to the public, let alone other municipalities affected by their decision, a determined Ben Avon Council voted unanimously Tuesday night, Nov. 16, to decertify the Ben Avon Volunteer Fire Company as the fire services provider for the borough.&emsp;&emsp;At the same time, council voted unanimously to enter into a contract with Emsworth Volunteer Fire Company to answer fire calls in Ben Avon.&emsp;&emsp;Although the fire company in recent years has had a rocky relationship with borough officials, they say they were completely blindsided by council's action at the meeting.&emsp;&emsp;"This was a hostile takeover," said Ben Avon Fire Chief Tom Maletick.&emsp;&emsp;Equally stunned, and very concerned, were officials in Kilbuck Township, which has a contract with Ben Avon and the Ben Avon Volunteer Fire Company to provide fire protection for half of Kilbuck. Emsworth Volunteer Fire Company serves the other half of Kilbuck.&emsp;&emsp;As of Wednesday night, said township manager Harry Dilmore, Kilbuck officials had not heard word one from any Ben Avon official, and had asked the township's solicitor to contact Ben Avon solicitor Anne Sweeney to clarify what effect the decertification would have on Kilbuck.&emsp;&emsp;Dilmore said that, after hearing rumors and getting unofficial updates during the council meeting, while Kilbuck officials were themselves meeting to discuss their budget, Dilmore and Supervisor Tom Tomaro actually went out and checked response times from Emsworth and Ohio Township fire stations to the area of Kilbuck served by Ben Avon VFC. They weren't good, Dilmore said.&emsp;&emsp;Sweeney told firefighters at the Ben Avon meeting that the fire company, a separate legal entity from the borough itself, still had a contract with Kilbuck, and could be dispatched to calls in the township, just not to calls in Ben Avon without being requested for assistance by Emsworth's fire chief. &emsp;&emsp;While that may allay immediate concerns in Kilbuck, it does not address the problem longterm. Ben Avon VFC is housed in property owned by the Borough of Ben Avon, and much of the company's equipment, including trucks, is owned by the borough as well.&emsp;&emsp;Ben Avon firefighters reported Wednesday that they had received notice from Ben Avon Borough that day giving the VFC 30 days to renegotiate a contract with Kilbuck, and ordered the VFC to vacate the fire station in Ben Avon 90 days after that.&emsp;&emsp;Two groups of people who were clued in to what was planned by Ben Avon Council were the elected officials and volunteer fire company in Emsworth. As Ben Avon announced that its relationship with the Ben Avon VFC was over effective immediately, Emsworth VFC already had a signed five-year contract with Ben Avon, according to Emsworth VFC spokesman Mike Adams. Adams said that Emsworth Council is expected to ratify that agreement, which pays $40,000 plus fire relief association funds to Emsworth annually, at its meeting in December. Ben Avon officials said Tuesday night that arrangements already had been made to notify Allegheny County 9-1-1 that Emsworth would be the fire services provider for Ben Avon.&emsp;&emsp;The action by Ben Avon Council ends a 129-year relationship between the volunteer fire company and Ben Avon Borough.&emsp;&emsp;That relationship has been rocky, at best, in recent years. The fire company launched social media attacks last year after council refused to support the fire company's purchase of a new truck firefighters said was needed to replace an outdated piece of equipment. Borough officials have frequently expressed frustration that the VFC does not send a representative to monthly council meetings or supply monthly reports on activity. Ben Avon Fire Chief Tom Maletick denied that reports had not been sent to the borough, however Dilmore said that Kilbuck has had the same problem, with no one from Ben Avon VFC attending supervisors' monthly meetings, and no reports received since June.&emsp;&emsp;The tension drew to a head as council decided that it wanted not only a fire services contract with the VFC, but a formal lease for the fire house located just down Church Avenue from the borough hall in property owned by the borough.&emsp;&emsp;Firefighters said that a formal service contract was not necessary and had never been implemented in Ben Avon. The draft service agreement presented to the fire company indicated that it would be good for only one year, through Dec. 31, 2022, and that Ben Avon would contribute only $25,000 to the VFC, a sum that is $15,000 less than what Ben Avon is paying Emsworth, and less than what the VFC has received in the past, Maletick said.&emsp;&emsp;As for the lease, it threatened to charge the VFC $800 per month in rent if the VFC did not comply with all terms of not only the lease, but the fire services agreement as well. Mayor Melanie Holcomb said in a later interview that the lease clearly stated the borough's intention to waive rent and utilities as long as the fire company complied with its obligations. &emsp;&emsp;At that point, however, the VFC hired an attorney, which effectively eliminated the possibility of individual firefighters and borough officials speaking with each other without counsel involved. Maletick said that he attempted to speak with council members and was told that they were not permitted to speak with him, as is the case when attorneys become involved in a matter.&emsp;&emsp;At Tuesday's meeting, council member Rick Wagner said that both agreements were necessary so that open communication could be maintained and officials were kept apprised of current and future needs of the firefighters. As an example, he said that last year's request for immediate action on a new truck caught council by surprise.&emsp;&emsp;Council president Jennifer Bett said that the agreements clarified the borough's relationship with the VFC, designating each party's rights and responsibilities. Ben Avon has a service agreement with Ohio Township for police services, and recently entered into a formal lease agreement with NorthWest EMS, which also occupies space in the fire hall building, she said.&emsp;&emsp;Firefighters at the meeting asked that council delay a vote on decertifying the VFC and negotiate the terms of the fire services and lease agreements. Sweeney said that the borough had offered multiple times to do just that, and the fire company had canceled multiple times, sometimes at the last minute.&emsp;&emsp;"We've been trying to work this out for over a year, and for over a year you've been stonewalling us," she said.&emsp;&emsp;"We felt rather forced to start looking at our options," Holcomb said.&emsp;&emsp;In a statement to the community issued following Tuesday's meeting, council stated that its decision was based also on a need for consolidation and regionalization of services such as fire protection. The cost of equipping a fire company keeps increasing, with municipalities and residents paying for duplicate equipment and services in many cases. Nationally, volunteerism in firefighting is at an all-time low, and individual fire companies are struggling to maintain enough active firefighters to respond to calls. Locally, it is not uncommon for multiple fire companies to be dispatched for even a single, noncritical call just to ensure that enough volunteers show up at the scene, and some fire companies are dispatched repeatedly before volunteers are available, especially during the day when volunteers hold jobs outside the area. Bellevue remains the only North Boroughs municipality to have paid firefighters who are stationed at the department 24/7 and work in conjunction with the Bellevue Volunteer Fire Company. &emsp;&emsp;Borough officials cited two different studies that recommended consolidation of the local fire companies, including one that outlined a consolidation of the Emsworth and Ben Avon fire companies.&emsp;&emsp;Although Ben Avon officials informally discussed a service agreement with other area fire companies, Holcomb said that Emsworth provided the fastest response times, had a stable organizational structure and excellent communication practices.&emsp;&emsp;For the Emsworth Volunteer Fire Company, according to Adams, answering calls in Ben Avon is nothing new, as both companies are regularly dispatched together. He said that Emsworth was approached by Ben Avon officials, and that firefighters agreed to the service contract after it became clear that Ben Avon officials had made up their minds to contract with an outside company. &emsp;&emsp;Adams said that Emsworth is lucky to have a junior firefighting program that is helping to feed an active roster of 24 firefighters.&emsp;&emsp;The decision is heartbreaking for longtime firefighters like former Ben Avon chief Gary Buckman, who has been a member of the fire company for 49 years and who attended Tuesday's meeting to ask that everyone hit the "reset" button in the best interests of the borough and its residents. &emsp;&emsp;Holcomb noted the incredible service that had been provided to the borough for decades by many of the longtime firefighters. "It breaks my heart on their behalf that it's come to this," she said.&emsp;&emsp;Although Ben Avon is encouraging its firefighters to join the Emsworth VFC, and Adams said Emsworth would welcome them, Adams admitted that could take a while. "A lot of feelings are hurt right now," he said.&emsp;&emsp;Meanwhile, Maletick says that the 20 people who answer calls for Ben Avon VFC are unlikely to join Emsworth, which, considering that Emsworth and Ben Avon answer calls together, could mean fewer firefighters on the scene the next time an alarm goes off in either borough. Get this news sooner by subscribing to The Citizen's e-edition. Click on the Subscribe tab at the top of this page.