It’s no secret that attracting and retaining volunteer firefighters is a growing problem not only in Newtown, but also in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and the United States in general.
Newtown Fire Chief Glenn Forsyth recently appeared before the Newtown Borough Council to report that Newtown has “a very active recruitment drive right now, and we're trying everything we can to recruit new members…[but]…the volunteer fire service is dwindling quickly” (read “Newtown Volunteer Fire Service 'Dwindling Quickly', Chief Says”; https://sco.lt/7jqxRA).
The Chief also appeared before the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors (BOS) at the October 18, 2021, Newtown Township 2022 Budget Presentation meeting [LINK: https://johnmacknewtown.info/2022budgtmtg.html]. He answered my question about how the $330,000 donation to the Newtown Fire Association (NFA) in the Township Manager’s recommended 2022 budget will be used.
To pay for this and other fire expenses - mostly for the cost of hiring a new Deputy Fire Chief - the Township Manager recommended a new 1.5 mil tax increase to be added to the Fire Protection Fund. However, the revised Preliminary Budget eliminates this tax and instead transfers money from the General Fund to the Fire Protection Fund. As a result the reserve for emergencies would drop to 8.6% of expenditures, which is lower than the preferred 10%.
I wanted to get more details so I met with Warren Dallas, Chair of the NFA who went over the numbers with me. Here is the plan, which is an attempt to increase volunteer firefighter responses to fire calls and add some staffing reliability, especially for low turnout times.
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Further Reading