Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
STATE OF EMERGENCY
Borough considers withdrawal from regional fire, EMS commission
Borough Council held a special meeting on Monday to consider a resolution that would lay the groundwork to withdraw from the Kennett Fire and Emergency Management Services Regional Commission by the end-of-theyear.
Councilwoman Kathleen Caccamo moved for the council to vote on the measure. Her motion, however, was not seconded.
When no council member came forward to second the motion, there was a collective sigh of relief from the audience, full of men and women in uniform representing fire companies in both Kennett Square and Kennett Township and the region.
Next, Councilman Bob Norris introduced a resolution that called on the commission to enact expenditure limits. The council unanimously voted “yes” to the measure.
Founded in 2017, the mission of the Kennett Fire and Emergency Management Services Regional Commission, an independent body, is to lessen the burden on local government by providing for inter-municipal collaboration and the pooling of municipal resources and funds for the provision of fire, rescue and emergency services.
The commission oversees six municipalities in Chester and Delaware counties, including Kennett Township, Kennett Square, East Marlborough, Newlin, Pennsbury and Pocopson.
The commission oversees the local government support key to funding three beloved area fire departments, including Longwood Fire Company, founded in 1921, in Kennett Township; Kennett Fire Company, founded in 1896 in Kennett Square; and Po-Mar-Lin Fire Company, which was first organized in 1840, in Unionville.
And while these historic and treasured fire companies have
existed generations, most people serving the community today as firefighters are volunteers.
During the last 40 years, the number of volunteer firefighters have decreased by 89 percent in Pennsylvania.
According to the Office of the State Fire Commissioner in Harrisburg, in the 1980s, on average, there were roughly 300,000 active firefighters across the state. Today, there’s fewer than 33,000.
To attract and support the volunteerism and heroism of local firefighters, and first emergency responders, back in February, the Kennett Area Fire and Emergency Management Services Regional Commission voted 4-2 in favor to launch a new Volunteer Retention and Recruitment Plan.
Due to budgetary concerns, representatives from Kennett Square, Mayor Matt Fetick, and Kennett Township, Supervisor Scudder Stevens, cast the only two “no” votes.
Yet the program, the first-of-its-kind in Chester County, passed with Commissioners Cuyler Walker of East Marlborough, Bennett Baird of Newlin, Aaron McIntyre of Pennsbury and Ray McKay of Pocopson all voting in favor of the measure.
“We want to remain in the commission,” said Norris. “We just have to be able to afford (to do so).”
The cost of being a firefighter has never been more expensive in Chester County, a place where gasoline prices have increased by more than 40 percent compared to one year ago. Further, the cost of living here is extremely high, and rising, directly impacting people making $50,000 or less a year, for instance, with finding a good place to live that is both affordable and comfortable.
For volunteer firefighters, serving the community in 2022 means not only spending time away from home and family but also spending hours in a non-paying role instead of working to make more money, or resting after a long day at the job, like most people do.
Instead firefighters sacrifice so much of themselves to serve their communities, neighbors, strangers and friends, this is their calling. The essence of Good Samaritans among us, indeed.
“Our state and government doesn’t fund you at all,” said Caccamo on Monday at the special meeting.
“We’re at a crossroads here,” she said.
“Our issue is not with the firefighters — our issue is with the commission.”
“The meeting was called to review our options for remaining or departing the commission,” said Kennett Square Mayor Matt Fetick on Tuesday.
“We believe there is incredible value in regionalized emergency services,” the Kennett Square mayor said. “All three (fire departments and EMS squads within the commission) provide high-quality emergency services to our community. We appreciate and value the volunteers and career firefighters and EMTs (and) paramedics.”
The mayor said the resolution passed on Tuesday was designed to show the borough’s commitment to the commission and a need to address growing costs and policies and procedures for financial matters.
Fetick said the next steps are to “work with the commission to strengthen emergency services in our community and to ensure the providers have the tools and resources they need while coming to an agreement on financial policies and procedures.”
The mayor added, “The members of the commission have worked hard to design a regionalized approach to fire and EMS services. We truly appreciate our municipal partners, just like we do our emergency service providers. And our goal is to continue our regionalized approach while ensuring long-term financial sustainability.”
Cuyler Walker, of East Marlborough, is the chairman of the Commission.
“The commission is an essential venue for the six municipalities to collectively establish annual funding for the three volunteer fire companies serving the region,” Walker said on Wednesday.
“Historically, each municipality has designated portions of its territory to the nearest fire station, meaning that parts of the municipalities are often served by more than one fire company and each fire company has often served multiple municipalities,” he said.
“The commission holds monthly meetings over the course of the year, at which the fire companies provide current operational and financial data and the members of the Commission can ask questions and request additional information,” Cuyler stated.
“Working collaboratively through a unified entity such as the commission is the only comprehensive way for the six municipalities to evaluate the aggregate regional funding needs and allocations annually,” he said.
Cuyler said the members of the commission work together in good faith to meet the needs and concerns of all six municipalities and their respective residents.
“I’m confident that the borough’s situation can be resolved by consensus, as other matters have been,” he said.
The special meeting on Monday was held at Kennett Square’s new $9.89 million headquarters at 600 S. Broad Street.
During the meeting, several firefighters spoke in favor of continued support and participation in the regional commission for the management of emergency services and first responders.
Rick Franks, assistant fire chief of Kennett Fire Company on Dalmatian Street, addressed the Borough Council directly.
“The commission was formed a little over six years ago by six municipalities that contracted a combination of fire and EMS emergency services from one of the multiple fire companies within the Kennett region,” Franks said.
“The fact is that providing these services is expensive. It is expensive for many reasons, including the gear, training, supplies, the fire and EMS apparatus, as well as many other things. However lucky for municipalities, these costs have been significantly lower in years past for a single reason, these costs have been lessened by countless numbers of dedicated volunteers,” Franks said.
“Just within Kennett Borough alone Kennett Fire Company has 22 active personnel. These volunteer members of your community save municipalities millions of dollars in tax monies each year,” Franks said. “Even with dedicated volunteers volunteering an untold amount of time to manage and maintain the department as well as answer any calls for service, municipalities including yourself have been under funding fire companies for decades.”
A.J. McCarthy, the fire chief of Longwood Fire Company, told the Daily Local News on Tuesday that the region experiences approximately 1,000 to 1,200 fire and rescue incidents and approximately 3,000 EMS incidents annually.
“This number continues to grow,” McCarthy said.
“We, too, struggle with rising costs and balancing budgets,” he said while addressing Borough Council on Monday.
With a population of 6,000 or so residents, firefighters respond to typically less than 200 incidents in the borough each year, and the EMS calls are far greater.
Three of the biggest fires to strike in region during the last 24 months include incidents at Victory, which brought more than 100 firefighters to the scene, in Kennett Square; the fire at the Savanno Bistro commercial complex in East Marlborough Township; an a large residential fire on Sills Mill Road in Kennett Township.
The next commissioners meeting will take place 5 p.m. July 12 in Pennsbury Township at 702 Baltimore Pike, Chadds Ford.