Albion's fire department makes plea for support
It did so with two fire engines, both purchased within the past few years to replace one aging rig and one damaged rig; and with a 10-year-old ambulance that recently underwent extensive repairs.
The calls were answered by about 13 active firefighters, a handful of emergency medical technicians and two paid EMTs hired to respond to incidents during weekday hours, when most of the volunteers are unavailable.
The department budgets
"That lasts us a couple of months," department Treasurer
The numbers aren't adding up, according to Fire Chief
A lack of resources, primarily money to fund operations, has department officials warning the communities they serve that the department could be forced to cease operations within the next 18 to 24 months.
The warning was recently posted on the department's Facebook page in an invitation to members of
The program will be held to outline the current status of the volunteer department and to answer questions. It will be similar to programs the department presented to municipal government officials, business owners and residents in
Those meetings were poorly attended, and no assistance was provided, Hyde said.
"This is real; this is happening," he said. "Everyone asks me who's to blame. We don't blame anybody. It is just the way this is."
Hyde said it isn't the 1970s or 1980s anymore, when people had a sense of volunteering their time to their community, when they would regularly contribute to the membership drive and when support was strong for the department's various fundraisers.
"It's a different time nowadays," he said. "People work hard for their money in this town. We know it's a retirement community, an elderly community. We don't have the local business like we had, so people have to travel. Money and wages aren't like they used to be."
The challenge of trying to operate a volunteer fire and ambulance service with increasing calls and expenses and decreasing members and funding isn't unique to the
"I guess the real issue, the real question that has to be asked, is can you afford a fire department, or can you afford not to have one?" Hyde said. "What people don't understand, as well as our elected officials, is this is not free. A lot of
The department runs a variety of fundraisers throughout the year to fund its operations, including the "Fire Crackin' Pig Roast" that it held in conjunction with
"We sent out 1,643 applications for our membership drive, and 472 came back in, 28 percent. If every single one would pay their membership fee, we wouldn't be talking," Hyde said.
The donation forms mailed out to residents asks for
"We'll have to look and see what they are going to present to the township, what their desires are and what they expect the township and the borough to do. And we will sit down with the borough to see how we can rectify this issue," Miraldi said.
Bright noted that there has been talk of implementing a fire and EMS tax, and that "may come to pass."
"We just had a tax increase necessary to keep the borough running. Short of another tax increase, I really don't see what we can do," White said.
Borough taxes jumped from
Read more about the crisis for the
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