None of the recommendations have been put into practice.

The township’s fire service “has a trained, dedicated and willing volunteer base,” according to the study, conducted under auspices of the Governor’s Center for Local Government Services.

The value of that spirit and expertise, however, is undercut by a “lack of communication, trust and cooperation between the four departments and the Township Board of Commissioners (the supervisors),” wrote study author Daniel Wauthier, citing conversations with department and municipal officials.

The tools are there, but the parties must work together better to get maximum use from them, according to the study.

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Logan Township United Fire Department Chief Rusty Shoenfelt arranges his gear at the station. “I want to see things get better,” Shoenfelt said of local fire service. He said he supports the main recommendation of the Logan Township fire service study: that the township appoint an overall fire administrator to take charge of the multi-department operation. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

“The overwhelming theme of most of the recommendations presented in this study is for the increased interoperability of resources that are already in place,” the study states.

Volunteer fire departments everywhere are challenged, due to “declining volunteerism, time commitments, increased regulatory requirements, and service demands,” the study states.

Moreover, society is “busy and litigious,” the study states.

Thus, fire departments can’t afford to work in a way that doesn’t maximize their assets, according to the study.

For such maximization to happen, fire companies need to be supervised properly by the governments that are responsible for them, according to the study.

“(Departments) cannot continue to operate autonomously with little to no oversight, (using) the excuse ‘we are only volunteers,’ while local governments look the other way,” the study states.

It takes both the fire service itself and the governmental sector in which that service is located for it to work, according to the study.

“Accountability for providing adequate fire services delivery is the responsibility of both the township and the fire departments,” the study states.

The fire departments, along with a “third-party” chief — or fire administrator or compensated steering committee of fire officials from outside the township — should work together to create common, updated by-laws, rules, regulations, operating guidelines and box alarms, such that they follow best industry practices, according to the study.

What should the township do?

Among problems cited by the study are “box alarms” compiled by some of the township’s fire departments that are less than ideal for ensuring public safety, according to Rusty Shoenfelt, chief of the United Fire Department.

Box alarms are packages of dispatch instructions for the 911 center that vary according to location and type of emergency.

All box alarms call for the nearest department to be the prime responder, but with some of the packages, the next closest departments are not designated to be called when additional help is needed — in favor of more distant departments, according to Shoenfelt.

Thus, Department A is called out for a fire in its neighborhood, but when Department A needs assistance, Department B, located just down the road, is not called out, based on instructions provided to the 911 center by Department A, according to Shoenfelt. Department C, however, is called, even though it’s located farther away, Shoenfelt said.

In the case of United, the callout sequence for additional help always conforms with what makes the most geographic sense, Shoenfelt said.

The study calls specifically for box alarms to be reviewed to ensure that when an emergency occurs, the nearest departments are dispatched, especially during the day, when volunteer availability tends to be low.

The study also calls for creation of a policy to ensure that sufficient resources are dispatched to all incidents.

It also calls for an ordinance that would allow township departments to bill responsible parties for the costs of answering calls for motor vehicle accidents.

Contracting with a third-party billing firm could help with that, according to the study.

The study calls for establishment of a training committee and uniform training policies, calibrated to match the level of expertise required of different firefighters as they attain different certification levels.

It also calls for scheduling frequent training sessions that involve all departments — along with reviews of all incidents, so lessons can be learned from actual responses to those incidents.

The township fire service should also ensure that it can meet standard guidelines for adequacy of responses, according to the study.

Thus, as a firefighting organization designated as rural — based on the population density of the area — Logan should be able to get six firefighters to the scene of a house fire within 14 minutes 80% of the time, according to the National Fire Protection Association, the study states.

To test the township fire service’s capabilities, departments should begin tracing their actual response times to structure fires, according to the study.

The township should also form a recruitment and retention committee, according to the study.

Recruitment and retention has become more and more difficult in recent generations due to more citizens working farther from the communities in which they live, less willingness of employers to let workers answer calls while on their regular jobs, an increase in family demands for firefighters’ time, especially firefighters with children who participate in sports, and especially when both parents are working; a much greater demand for training to qualify as a firefighter; an increase in calls due to proliferation of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and connected alarms; and the trend for fire departments to respond to vehicle accidents, according to the study.

The recruitment and retention committee should apply for state funding from the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response program to help with improvements, according to the study.

The township fire service should also work toward creating safer conditions for firefighters by installing exhaust removal systems in all fire stations; buying turnout gear decontamination equipment and providing annual medical evaluations for all firefighters, according to the study.

The reforms should also include a plan to improve the community’s ISO rating and a plan for annual testing of various types of equipment.

And the reforms should include standardization of data collection and entry and reporting, the study states

Vision needed to move forward

“I want to see things get better,” Shoenfelt said.

Shoenfelt supports the main recommendation of the study: that the township appoint an overall fire administrator to take charge of the multi-department operation.

“For the township fire service to move forward, it will require a single point of leadership and vision,” Shoenfelt said.

Such a leader “would be able to facilitate interdepartmental cooperation through training and emergency responses and would help to establish common goals,” he wrote in an email. “(A) leader with a strong vision and experience how to manage ever increasing costs and experience in budgeting that can identify needs vs. wants while maintaining a high level of service.”

Such a leader should have “no personal agenda,” he wrote.

Shoenfelt doesn’t have a good answer for the problem of recruitment and retention.

“(It is) one topic that everyone struggles with,” he said, noting the problem is largely one of “too many competing priorities.”

United has tried giving perks to members to show appreciation, but helping them out financially is not straightforward, according to Shoenfelt.

There is a state law that allows municipalities to use property and income tax breaks as incentives, but not all of United’s firefighters live in the township, and, given the unlikelihood that other municipalities would give a break to benefit Logan firefighters, using such a tool could lead to accusations of unfairness, he stated. United has tried marketing itself and an incentive through a federal grant program for tuition reimbursement for higher education, but with limited success, he wrote.

The township supervisors have not “embraced the findings or the recommendations” of the study, according to Shoenfelt.

Being part-timers in the township, the supervisors lack “the time and knowledge of modern fire service standards and operations to (design) any truly successful plans” on a broad scale anyway, he said.

“This points back to why we need a full time independent paid fire administrator/fire chief,” he stated. “(W)ith a vision for the Logan Township fire service as a whole.”

Variable factors to be considered

The study confirmed much of what township officials and fire service officials thought needed to be done prior to its being commissioned, said Supervisor Jim Patterson.

He’s ambivalent about the main recommendation, however — that the township should hire an overall fire administrator or chief.

It’s not a bad idea, and he’d be willing to look at it seriously, he said.

“But ultimately, we’ve got to pay somebody to do that,” Patterson said.

If the role includes writing grants to pay for fire equipment, it could be beneficial.

“There are a lot of variable factors (involved) that we need to consider,” he stated.

Whether to hire an overall chief would be a board decision made in consultation with the fire chiefs, he added.

There are only a small percentage — maybe 5% — of box alarms that designate companies that aren’t the closest to an emergency location as next in line to be called, according to Patterson.

Asked if the reason for such designations is “resentment,” he demurred.

“I don’t want to say resentment,” he said.

Still, departments “should put personalities aside,” he said, in connection with that issue.

There can be legitimate reasons for box alarms that designate a company that isn’t closest to the emergency as the one to respond, such as availability of responders during certain hours, Patterson said.

Regardless, if there’s a fire at your house or business, “you don’t care where the call is coming from,” he said. “You just need the help.”

There used to be two sets of box alarms, and now there’s only one, he said, citing that as a positive change.

A further positive would be confirmation that the supervisors must approve any box alarm alteration, he said.

“We’re working on getting that,” he said.

‘Make sure we do it right’

“It’s been a while, I agree,” since the study was delivered to the supervisors, said Supervisor Joe Metzgar, in connection with no action having been taken yet to put the study into practice. “(But) I would rather go slow than fast,” he said. “Make sure we do it right, so we don’t have to go back and change it.”

It would be best if the two-person supervisors’ Fire Service Committee discusses the issues with the chiefs, he said.

Currently, those committee members are Supervisors Ron Heller and Patrick Jones.

It probably behooves the township to “implement some things” before potentially hiring an overall chief, Metzgar said.

One of those things should be better coordination, so major fires get the coverage they need, while smaller fires don’t have unnecessary overlaps in coverage, Metzgar said.

It’s also necessary for the fire service to find a way to attract more volunteers, Metzgar said.

Putting some of the study recommendations into practice may show that an overall chief isn’t necessary, he said.

There’s no “requirement” that the township follow the recommendations in the study, or meet any kind of deadline with the recommendations, Metzgar wrote in a supplementary email.

Some recommendations might be applicable to one or more of the separate departments, but not to all of them, he added.

As it is now, the fire service is “very capable in the protection” of township residents, he wrote.

‘A thorny issue’

“It’s a thorny issue,” Supervisor and Fire Service Committee member Patrick Jones said of the recommendation to appoint an outsider as overall chief.

There doesn’t seem to be “a great desire” for merging the departments that way, Jones said.

It’s something that would take time for people to accept, he predicted.

People tend to dislike change, although sometimes change is for the better, he said.

People would need “to be educated and convinced” of the benefits, he said, though he suggested it couldn’t be done with a peremptory order.

Appointing an overall chief could lead to some firefighters quitting — although many would likely return, eventually, he predicted.

Part of the Logan Township fire service experienced a version of such a merger years ago, when Grandview, Juniata Gap and Kittanning Trail came together to create United Fire Department, Jones said.

United is “kind of thriving and doing pretty good,” he said, but not all fire company mergers work out.

It’s likely that if the Logan fire service ultimately becomes unified under a single chief, it will not happen right away, but slowly, in “piecemeal” fashion, with successive mergers like the one that occurred to form United, Jones said.

However, other areas of the township may not be as amenable to the merger concept as the territory United serves, he said.

As they consider potential changes, the supervisors need to remember that the fire service consists of volunteers, “so you have to treat them differently than (people) who get paid,” Jones said.

Departments already do a good job

Supervisor and Fire Service Committee member Ron Heller doesn’t favor bringing in an outsider to become overall chief.

The separate departments “do a good job (now) of taking care of business,” Heller said. “They (also) back each other up.”

As for the possibility of elevating a person to overall chief that is already part of the township fire service: “I would have to discuss that with them,” he said.

On recruitment and retention, Heller favors providing a property tax break as an incentive for residents to join, though he doesn’t have an opinion on the size of the tax discount.

Such an incentive wouldn’t apply to potential firefighters who live in other municipalities.

The Logan fire service needs to keep its attention on keeping its equipment up to date, Heller said, noting Logan already has productive mutual aid agreements with the City of Altoona’s Fire Department.

The township’s other fire chiefs and other supervisors didn’t accept an invitation from the Mirror to talk about the issues raised by the study.

It’s an emotional issue, and it’s complicated, Jones said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.