By David Guo
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
MARSHALL, Pa. — The pace of talks aimed at consolidating fire companies in Marshall, Pine and Bradford Woods has picked up steam at the behest of public officials in all three municipalities.
While any merger is months, if not years, away, the renewed initiative has led fire officials to hold monthly meetings for about the past six months, and the possibility of a merger has been discussed at Marshall supervisors meetings in August.
It won’t be easy to form a plan all three groups can endorse, said John Ashbaugh, president of the Marshall Volunteer Fire Company Warrendale station.
Still, he said, momentum is building.
Mr. Ashbaugh, who is serving as president following the August resignation of Charles Ross, supports a merger. But while it makes sense to him in terms of fire response efficiency and bulk purchasing power, he cautioned that municipal officials should not count on saving much money, if any at all.
Mr. Ashbaugh predicted that a unified force would have little problem retaining enough volunteer firefighters, but he doesn’t believe the same can be said for unpaid office staffers.
“We are not going to be able to continue to move forward with volunteer help. We’re going to need paid employees,” he said.
Mr. Ross is an investment broker who had been both a fire company administrator and active firefighter.
“Charlie told me being the fire president cost him $20,000 a year,” his successor said, “and I believe him.”
Robert Fayfich, chairman of the supervisors, thanked Mr. Ross and Mr. Ashbaugh for their service.
“You go out on these calls, you see people getting burned, it really begins to wear on you,” the chairman said.
Mr. Ashbaugh said the toll of service also has been high for Marshall fire company treasurer Bernadette Schwartz.
The chance that Mrs. Schwartz, a certified public accountant, would continue to work for free at a region-sized operation, he said, was easy for him to calculate: Zero.
“She’s up to her eyebrows and has two kids in sports,” Mr. Ashbaugh said. “She told me she’s going to do one more year of this and then she’s out.”
An upgrade for the Marshall fire company’s Warrendale station also has been discussed at the township supervisors meetings.
The fire company is trying to find an additional half-million dollars for the expansion.
“The bottom line is we can afford a million dollar building. We don’t have the resources for a $1.5 million building,” Mr. Ashbaugh said.
To close the gap as much as possible, Mr. Ashbaugh mentioned the usual array of fund-raisers and low-interest loans but also an out-of-the-box idea Mr. Ross had floated in the spring: corporate sponsorships like those that support Heinz Field and Mellon Arena.
“Maybe Heinz can put a ketchup bottle on the side of the truck, I don’t know. We’re wide open to any ideas right now,” he said.
The company wants to break ground in the spring on work that would double the number of vehicle bays to four plus provide more office and dorm space.
“The building we’re in was built in 1950. It’s outdated,” he said. “It has outlived its usefulness.”
Marshall has not contributed to the upgrade or to the recent purchase of a new $400,000-plus fire truck. But it has typically covered roughly 90 percent of the fire company’s $225,000 to $250,000 annual operating budget, Mr. Fayfich said.
Copyright 2007 P.G. Publishing Co.