Volunteer fire chiefs ask Blair Township to consider dedicated fire tax for steady funding

Representatives from four volunteer fire departments serving Blair Township told the Board of Supervisors on Oct. 28 that a dedicated fire tax is needed to provide stable funding for equipment, maintenance and firefighter certification as volunteer numbers fall.

Ron Henry, fire chief of the Freedom Township Volunteer Fire Department, speaking on behalf of the departments present, said several counties and townships are adopting a fire tax to ensure dependable revenue. He said local fundraising and grants are increasingly unreliable, and that costs such as apparatus maintenance and outfitting firefighters continue to rise. The chiefs requested a workshop with the Supervisors to discuss options for implementing a fire tax and how revenue would be divided among the responding departments.

The chiefs said they continue to bill insurance companies for cost recovery related to incidents but do not generally bill homeowners for amounts above what insurance reimburses. They also said the departments already operate informally as a coalition at incident scenes, with the first-arriving company taking command, and that a taxation model would likely be administered as an oversight coalition rather than merging departments.

Chairman Paul Amigh thanked the volunteer firefighters for their service, acknowledged the difficulty of fundraising, and asked that the chiefs bring further details to a workshop. The Board did not take formal action at the meeting.

What happens next: the fire chiefs requested a workshop to provide the Board with more information; the Supervisors and chiefs indicated they would coordinate to set that meeting and possibly involve State representatives if policy or enabling legislation is needed.