By Sean Hillard
The Evening Sun (Hanover, Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Germany Township residents are up in arms because changes to some of the township’s emergency response assignments have fire trucks coming from nearly 15 miles away instead of Littlestown, which is right next door.
Supervisors earlier this year changed Company 21 box areas, which are covered by Kingsdale Volunteer Fire Co., because they didn’t reflect equipment updates at area fire companies.
But before the changes made it to Adams County 911 center, they were altered to either take out Littlestown’s Alpha Fire Co., or put the company near the bottom of the responder lists, chairman Germany Township Supervisor Richard Valko said Monday.
Township officials say they don’t know who made the changes.
Supervisor William Ridinger, who is also the vice president of Kingsdale, said supervisors went to Adams County Control after the supervisors’ July meeting and further changes were made to the list.
But township residents are saying the Littlestown company is still not listed high enough.
With the responder list in his hand Monday night, township resident Steve Bitzel told supervisors that emergency equipment, in some cases, would come from too far away.
Trucks sent to tackle a brush fire would come from Irishtown — about a 15-mile drive – before Littlestown, Bitzel said. Crews from Barlow would be called for water rescues before Rescue 20 from Littlestown, he said.
Reached by telephone Tuesday, Irishtown Fire Co. Chief Greg Kessel called the arrangement “asinine.”
Barlow firefighter Joel Yingling said the company would take Taneytown Road to Harney Road into Kingsdale – about an eight-mile drive – if they are called out to a water rescue there. He said it would make more sense for the rescue truck from Harney, Md., to respond to a water rescue because “they’re closer.”
The township is planning to hold a special public meeting to address the issue after it gets a recommendation back from Adams County Control, Valko said.
Valko said Supervisor John Lee planned to talk to county control Tuesday about the issue, and the township hopes to have a response back by the end of next week.
This spring, a rift between Kingsdale and Alpha fire companies was renewed when Kingsdale hoped to bring on an ambulance rather than relying on Alpha for medical service. Weeks later, Kingsdale gave up on the idea after Alpha officials refused to OK Kingsdale as the second company due at emergencies.
The public and representatives from Kingsdale and Alpha fire companies are expected to meet with supervisors some time after that.
Resident Toby Bowers had an even simpler idea.
“Why don’t we just go back to what we had before?” he asked.
Township Solicitor David James said the list was changed because of new equipment at the area’s fire companies.
“If there’s an issue, we should have county control sit down and make this correct,” he said. “Identify the equipment and make it right.”
James said he has several options for supervisors to fix the problem.
“You can do nothing tonight and have county control make their recommendation as fast as possible,” he said. “It’s not perfect.”
For the township’s residents, it all comes down to being safe.
“It’s all about common sense,” Bowers said. “We want safety and to be protected. That’s all it is: common sense.”