A second joint public meeting of Oil City and Franklin’s city councils to discuss regionalization and funding opportunities for fire and EMS services in Venango County, specifically in the central part of the county, is coming up this week.
The meeting, scheduled at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Venango Technology Center cafeteria, will be a follow-up to a lengthy session in January that focused on the future of fire service in the county.
About 70 firefighters and officials from across the county attended that gathering, which was also held at the technology center.
The plan Wednesday is for a guest speaker from the state Department of Community and Economic Development to speak about doing a regional study of the county’s fire departments, Franklin City Manager Tracy Jamieson said.
Jamieson added that the speaker understands the plight of fire departments personally as a number of her male relatives are involved in fire departments.
Franklin, Oil City and Sugarcreek Borough have approved a letter of intent for a feasibility study to see what the “advantages and disadvantages of joining forces” are for the two cities and the borough, Jamieson said. She added that makes sense for those municipalities since they are in the central part of the county.
Moon said Oil City has applied for a grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development to help pay for a consultant to look into consolidation of fire departments.
“Anyone is welcome to come, it is a countywide issue,” Jamieson said.
Notices about the meeting were sent to a number of volunteer fire departments, and the meeting was also noted at this week’s meeting of the Venango County Firefighters and Fire Chiefs Association.
