Note: Several times over the last several weeks, these pages have contained news story and commentary on the merger talks taking place between the Parkesburg, Atglen and Pomeroy fire companies and the 8 municipalities they serve. These talks, which began in 2010, are moving quickly toward a single consolidated fire fighting organization with the eight municipalities, including Parkesburg, footing more of the total cost of fielding and maintaining an all volunteer fire fighting force.
Beginning with these minutes from the July meeting, Parkesburg Today will publish details of the discussion to both educate and keep our readers informed.
Western Chester County Fire Company
Reorganization Committee Minutes
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 (Approved on August 16, 2011)
Meeting was called to order by Brad Sinrod at 1905 hrs
Attendees: Brad Sinrod, Ray Stackhouse, Leo Scaccia, Willard
Marsh, Bill Winters, R.P. Scott, Gene Ratcliff, John R. Ford, Barry Edwards,
Jim Reagan, Ray Campbell, Steve Webb, Danny Tribbett, Frank Haas, Ed Haas, Tom
Scott, Stephanie Silvernail
Excused: Tony Sirna, Larry Constable, Rich Klinger, Chuck
Persch, Brian Gathercole, William Kochel
New members: None
Special Guest: Russ Guthrie
Approval of June Minutes: Approved as written by the group
with three grammatical changes.
Handouts: Agenda, June minutes, Items developed by Russ
Guthrie including CD of June presentation, If you want a CD of Russ’s
presentations, call or e-mail Ray and he will get you one. The material is too
large to send through most e-mails.
Old Business:
Received: Copy of payment invoice from Atglen Fire company
to Russ Guthrie amt of 250.00 dollars, Payment of 4,500 dollars from Chester
County EMS Council to Russ Guthrie. The only township still outstanding is
Atglen boro, who has commented that the check has been approved/written and is
being sent to Russ. The next round of 250.00 dollars is due at the September
meeting. Total given to Russ as of tonights’ meeting. 6,500.00 dollars
All municipalities have accepted and have presented signed
resolutions. All fire companies have completed MOU’s
Russ has Power point slides that outline current run
district, representatives of each municipality, fire companies and
business/citizen reps.
All members present had time to review. There were no
changes, yet several positions are still open.
New Business:
Russ Guthrie will be running each meeting from this date
forward. Brief minutes will be kept and copies of material and power point
presentations will be available for members to review.
There was discussion to shore up and tie down the
representatives of each municipality and fire companies
There was a service map review.
Open discussion on Fire Administrator role in initial set up
of organization.
Open discussion on Fire District Board Makeup continues.
Russ displayed a potential/possible budget with numbers he
does know. As numbers become more exact, we will know true budget for new
organization. Russ feels his numbers tonight are very accurate but will still
need some information for final budget.
Russ explained 10 tables to the attendees and has handouts
available if you would want one. Please see Leo at the next meeting.
At this point, other than a few number changes, Russ states
that his job of investigation is complete. He asks that before the next meeting
that all municipalities and fire companies take a straw poll to see if the
members are in or not in and to make the final decision to move forward with
the consolidation. He asked also that the group needs to decide if we would
chose process one with an “authority” versus the simple consolidation process
number 2.
He applauds the efforts and willingness of the group to make
this happen with little difficulty. The August meeting, he will ask officially
if all parties are in agreement with moving forward. Members are urged to
attend or have representation for potential vote. From the group, the sense is
that we will continue to move forward.
Russ will be meeting with East Fallowfield
Township on September 13
during their work meeting. All entities are invited to attend for information
gathering and dissemination.
Wrap-up, round table. The “quarter” was passed and in
general, all members were happy with progress tonight and the plan for the
future meetings.
Next meeting will be August 16 at 7pm at the Huston Center
at Brandywine.
Meeting adjourned at 2100hrs by Brad Sinrod.
Respectfully submitted: July 21, 2011
Leo Scaccia
Secretary
Thanks to Parkesburg Fire Commissioner Ray Stackhouse for making these notes available.
