Fire services agreement updated

DOWNINGTOWN » Downingtown Borough Council recently approved of the contract with East Caln Township to continue the fire services.

Downingtown Council President Anthony “Chip” Gazzerro announced that the three East Caln supervisors spent hours “cleaning up the language” of the Fire Protection Services Agreement, and noted they did not make any major changes to the current services provided. Downingtown Borough and East Caln Township are served by Alert and Minquas Fire Companies of the Downingtown Fire Department, both housed in the borough.

Downingtown Borough Manager Steve Sullins noted that the last updated hard copy was in 1989 and he described some parts as illegible. He noted that East Caln officials did not have a hard

copy or anything on file and they asked for the contract in writing. One change in the contract is the payment schedule from the township, which changes from

quarterly to twice a year. There are no changes to responsibilities or the services that the fire companies will provide.

“We’ve being doing this for the last 17 years that I’ve been here because the ratio was about 50/50 and the call volume was 50/50,” Sullins said. “So we never

looked at changing it.”

Downingtown and East Caln share the budget costs of the fire companies. One of the agreements in the contract outlines the budget process which allows the borough to increase single line items by up to three percent without needing approval from East Caln supervisors.

The contract also states that the costs would not increase by more than three

percent in a 12-month period if either party decides to terminate the agreement.

Downingtown Mayor Josh Maxwell noted that East Caln Township pays 49 percent of the fire services while the borough provides the other 51 percent in the budget. He said that the fire department has more equipment and apparatus because of such an agreement, rather than one municipality funding all of the

costs for the available resources, in addition to fire company fundraisers.

“This relationship has been extraordinarily valuable,” Maxwell said about the agreement between the two municipalities. “I think it’s something we have to be just very careful with and make sure that we follow it. We have to make sure that East Caln knows how much we appreciate them being a part of this agreement and how we like supporting them.”

Council members approved the Fire Protection Services Agreement in a 5-1 vote with Councilwoman Ann Feldman dissenting. She had suggested tabling the topic to further review the agreement.