The creation of a county fire authority was among the suggestions that was discussed during Wednesday’s gathering of Venango County firefighters and officials at Venango Technology Center in Oil City.
About 70 people sat in for the two-hour discussion organized by Oil City and Franklin city councils. The meeting was designed to find possible solutions to manpower, financial and other issues facing paid and volunteer departments in the county.
It was noted at the meeting that the formation of a countywide fire authority, or cooperation, would involve state lawmakers passing a bill that would allow such an organization to be created.
Randy Lamb, who has been with the Rouseville Volunteer Fire Department for 50 years, said a fire corporation or authority ought to function “independent of elected officials.”
He spoke about the need for strong leadership for a fire authority that isn’t political and the importance of having a strong financial component as well.
“It’s like starting a new business today,” Lamb said.
Oil City fire chief Derek Long said an authority could collect fees and centralize billing to insurance companies, as well as disburse money to fire departments.
Long said insurance companies can be billed for a department’s response to a house fire.
A volunteer firefighter noted that this requires time and computer knowledge, which is hard to come by at his department.
Long said Oil City uses a third-party billing service.
Having combination departments, with some volunteer firefighters and some paid firefighters, was also discussed Wednesday.
It was also noted that in other parts of the state several departments have merged together successfully in a regionalization plan.
Long brought up the example of Butler Township where four departments in the township merged into one.
Lamb said a study done in 1985 recommended combining resources of the Venango County fire departments.
“Back then the savings was huge, now it would be far greater,” Lamb said. He added that fixing the issue of funding is far easier than fixing the manpower problem.
Venango County commissioner Mike Dulaney said that according to current law, the county isn’t allowed to create a fire authority.
Dulaney added that a bill to address the issue of a fire authority and allowing taxes to be levied for the upkeep of fire departments has sat in a state Senate committee since May.
On the subject of manpower, Chris Hepler with the Seneca Volunteer Fire Department said he thought it would be beneficial for volunteer and paid departments to train together as some of the volunteers, especially younger ones, feel intimidated by the paid firefighters.
“There is too much of a divide between paid firefighters and volunteers…It shouldn’t be that way,” Hepler said. He added that joint training might also help departments struggling with manpower.
Meetings to address issues facing fire service in the county have been happening off and on, beginning as early as 1985 and continuing to as recently as 2016, multiple people said Wednesday. But after a few meetings excitement would wane, little would be accomplished and the meetings would fizzle out, those people said.
Others at Wednesday’s meeting noted the importance of strong leadership going forward to find and implement possible solutions.
