By RICHARD FELLINGER
The Evening Sun (Hanover, Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
With many volunteer fire companies struggling to pay their bills and fill their ranks, some lawmakers want the state to offer grants that would encourage companies to merge or form partnerships for providing certain services.
Sen. Don White, R-Indiana, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee, sponsored the bill to provide grants up to $100,000 from a new state bond issue. Sen. Mike Waugh, R-Shrewsbury, is the lead co-sponsor.
At a Wednesday hearing of the Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee, senators debated the bill with fire officials who say it doesn’t do enough.
State Fire Commissioner Edward Mann said he backs incentives for mergers, but he wants more sweeping changes for overseeing the state’s fire services system. His suggestions include more state-level direction and more planning for the future of the state’s nearly 2,400 fire companies.
“If we’re going to offer incentives, at the end of the day we should be able to stand back and say there are some results in the system,” Mann said.
Waugh cautioned that major changes could take a while to win approval, and he touted the bill as a way to offer help sooner to departments who want to work together.
A former assistant fire chief in Shrewsbury, Waugh said fire companies stuck to rigid dividing lines decades ago but now tend to cooperate.
The Southeastern Adams Volunteer Emergency Services grew out of four-way merger between McSherrystown, Brushtown, Conewago and Centennial fire companies.
And York County companies, such as those in Springettsbury and Spring Garden townships, have begun discussing mergers, Waugh said.
Supporters of the bill say it would help fire companies buy equipment, cover administrative and legal fees for mergers, or build live-in quarters for volunteers.
Joseph Manerchia of the Marcus Hook Fire Co. in Delaware County suggested the bill be amended to clarify that companies can also use the money to publicize their plans in newsletters or advertisements.
The grants would go to fire or ambulance companies that merge or form partnerships for sharing equipment or rescue units.
White expressed frustration that the Legislature has yet to offer significant help for fire companies since voters endorsed the $100-million bond issue in a 2002 referendum, and he called the bill “a starting point.”
“We’ve sat around and talked and talked about this, and it’s time to act,” White said.
Including Waugh, the bill has 22 co-sponsors in the 50-member Senate. Other co-sponsors who represent part of York and Adams counties are Sens. Terry Punt, R-Waynesboro, and Jeffrey Piccola, R-Harrisburg.