By JIM MEYER
Staff writer
The Venango County Firefighters and Fire Chiefs Association wants township officials in the county to help fund siren systems for severe weather alerts.
Bob Jamison, co-chair of the firefighters association, addressed the township leaders Wednesday during their annual convention at the Oakland fire hall.
“We’ve come to rely on the fire department sirens, which were built back in the 1940s and 1950s, and they’ve fallen into disrepair,” Jamison said. “They run on electric motors that have the potential to freeze up or rust.”
“There’s really no actual program in place for weather warnings,” Jamison said. “The townships have the responsibility for public safety.”
Jamison said an ideal system would include sirens that are centrally located in the communities in such a way that they can be heard throughout the county. Given that sirens cost between $4,000 and $25,000, that isn’t a feasible option.
“Some of these sirens are literally 70 years old,” Jamison said. “Townships should look at helping them out, because they’re expensive to operate.”
Jamison said some sirens go out of service and volunteer fire departments simply use their cell phones for alerts rather than pay to fix the siren. He then pulled out his own cell phone and noted he had no service at the Oakland fire hall.
“Volunteer fire service is in crisis,” Jamison said. “Stations are closing because they have no money and no manpower.”
In light of the struggle of volunteer fire departments, Jamison said it is unfair to let fire departments be solely responsible for maintaining the sirens that could be used for a variety of public safety alerts.
Megan McDonough, a municipal government authority program manager, also spoke at the township convention and mentioned a tax credit program signed into law last year that has been helping recruit volunteer firefighters.
“In Pennsylvania, we seem to have an issue with volunteer fire departments,” McDonough said. “They can’t retain members. They have a hard time recruiting members. One way to do that is to give volunteer firefighters a tax credit, and it’s definitely working.”
The tax credit program was signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf and offers volunteers property tax and income tax credits on their local taxes.
This tax credit program isn’t mandatory, however, and each municipality can decide whether to implement the program. A municipality must enact an ordinance to implement the tax credit program.
