Pennsylvania Voters to Decide on Eliminating Paid Firefighter

The referendum to eliminate Connellsville’s paid fire department will head to the Fayette County Election Bureau to be placed on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Council, during a special meeting on Thursday, unanimously voted to direct the city clerk to submit the referendum to the election bureau. The referendum will ask voters whether the city should disband the paid fire department in favor of being served by volunteers.

Nobody from the public spoke for or against the referendum, but council had questions for Jeff Layton, assistant chief for New Haven Hose Company Volunteer Fire Department, which has been the city’s primary fire department since 1991. The city has not had a 24/7 paid fire department for nearly 15 years. Its firefighters left through attrition.

Layton was asked how response time for New Haven Hose would be affected by the elimination, because the VFD is on the west side of the city, and the paid department is on the east side.

“We have plans and alarm assignments,” Layton said, adding that those plans have been in place since the 1990s.

New Haven Hose Co. has 35 firefighters with an average of 12 firefighters responding to every call, Layton said, and is assisted by South Connellsville and Connellsville Township volunteer fire departments.

Lt. Craig Gates, the only remaining paid firefighter in the city, attended the meeting with Jerry Tedesco, vice president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, but they did not speak until interviewed after the meeting.

“The council didn’t ask how many firefighters respond during a daylight shift,” Tedesco said. “It’s an important question that nobody asked.”

Tedesco said studies have stated a recommended model for communities is to have a full-time firefighter on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week along with a volunteer fire department and added that the 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift is important because most people “” including volunteer firefighters “” are at work.

“I can respond to a fire in five minutes,” Gates said, adding that in that amount of time, the volunteer firefighters are just getting out the door.

Tedesco added that he was concerned council never asked Gates what he does; he not only fights fires, but he conducts code enforcement and leads fire prevention efforts.

“Eighty percent of our jobs is fire prevention,” Tedesco said.

Gates, who has been a firefighter with the city for 13 years, said he understands the decision will be up to the voters, but he wants them to think about what he does for the city before casting their vote.

An appeal is unlikely, because the decision will be up to the voters, he added.

“This has been coming for a while,” Gates said. “I didn’t think it would come this fast.”

The city expects to save up to $100,000 annually with the elimination of pay, benefits, insurance and operation costs to the east side building.

Mark Hofmann is a staff writer with Trib Total Media.