Metro

The Antis Township supervisors Thursday voted to decertify the Pinecroft Volunteer Fire Company, effective 9 a.m. Tuesday, after a company representative told the board the company had voted this week not to go through with a handshake deal its leaders had nearly struck to be absorbed by Excelsior Fire Department No. 1 of Bellwood.

Pinecroft can avoid decertification if it reverses that membership vote and agrees to be absorbed by Excelsior before the deadline, but if the decision stands, the Blair County 911 center would no longer dispatch Pinecroft to emergencies and the company would no longer be authorized to perform at emergency scenes — with its assets eventually being dissolved under state guidance, according to township solicitor Patrick Fanelli.

“It’s a shame,” said Excelsior Chief Jack McCloskey after the decertification vote. “The community is the one that is losing.”

The proposed deal had been complete except for some minor “verbiage” in two paragraphs, after negotiations between the organizations in the last two months designed to meet a deadline for Pinecroft to agree to the absorption by Thursday’s meeting, or face decertification, McCloskey said.

Ultimately, however, the Pinecroft vote this week appeared to turn not on those insignificant language tweaks, but on members’ unwillingness to lose their company’s identity, according to McCloskey and Pinecroft attorney Joe Addink.

That loss of identity through absorption was the “sticking point,” Addink told the board.

The Pinecroft membership, however, would have been willing to work out a deal under which the companies came together in an arrangement under which Pinecroft could have retained that identity, although that wasn’t doable by Thursday’s deadline, due to the complexity of the details, Addink said, prior to the board’s decertification vote.

The pressure to reach an agreement in the 60 days since the board set the Thursday deadline for compliance was unrealistic, Addink said. It would be tantamount to an order for the Pittsburgh Steelers to merge with the Baltimore Ravens within two months, Addink said.

Blaming the failure to reach an agreement on lack of time belies an ongoing effort of the board since perhaps 2020 to unify the companies, according to township representatives.

In 2020, the first of two state studies recommended the creation of one township fire company, a finding that was reiterated last year by the second study, officials noted.

“The township has spent countless hours attempting to work with both Excelsior and Pinecroft fire departments since 2020 in an attempt to increase communication and cooperation between the departments,” the township stated in a news release prepared before Thursday’s meeting. “This effort has, regrettably, not been successful, and we are now at a point where, due to the financial demands and inconsistent training and call responses (of Pinecroft), feel it is in the best interests of our residents to support one fire department.”

Having one unified department in the township was intended to help preserve the volunteer fire service in Antis by increasing the volume and quality of training and by saving money, in the context of declining volunteerism generally and rapidly growing expenses for equipment, officials have said.

The supervisors’ vote to decertify was 3-1, with an abstention.

Voting in favor of decertification were Chairman George Bell, Steve Winterstein and Sue Kensinger. Voting against it was Ben Hornberger, a member of the Pinecroft department. Abstaining was Brian Kustaborder, citing his membership in Excelsior.

Rather than force Pinecroft to be absorbed by Excelsior, the township should have permitted a combination that would have allowed Pinecroft to retain its identity, Hornberger said.

Had that been argued during the months preceding Thursday’s vote, Excelsior probably would have been OK with it, McCloskey said after the meeting.

But the supervisors were intentional in their push for Pinecroft to be absorbed, according to township Manager Doug Brown.

Excelsior is the stronger company, Brown said.

It has many more active members, and many more members with the proper training, he said.

Pinecroft, by contrast, has struggled.

Those struggles include malfeasance by a former leader several years ago in connection with funds.

The “merger” that the supervisors insisted on — in which one company assimilates another — is simpler to execute and far less expensive than “consolidation,” which is appropriate for a combination of equals, and which involves dissolution of both entities and creation of an entirely new one, Brown said.

There were some uncomfortable moments at Thursday’s meeting.

Hornberger equated the decertification of Pinecroft with a reduction in services and cited that in connection with a 2025 property tax increase.

“Less service for more money,” he said.

“That is piss-poor management,” he said. “It’s total bulls–.”

Decertification of Pinecroft could mean a delayed response if there’s a fire at his house, said Riggles Gap resident Ron Himes, who expressed his opposition repeatedly as Bell tried to explain the board’s reasoning.

Actually, decertification “will not adversely affect the fire protection of the community and our residents,” the news release states. “The Excelsior Volunteer Fire Department for many years has been covering all calls within the township through dual dispatch.”

The supervisors thanked the Pinecroft members in the news release “for their many years of service and the personal sacrifices it takes to be a volunteer firefighter.”

Following decertification, a branch of the state Attorney General’s office would petition Blair County Court for appointment of a receiver who would supervise dissolution of Pinecroft’s assets, according to township solicitor Patrick Fanelli.

Those can include the keys to the station, the station property, the department’s firefighting and rescue vehicles, its firefighting equipment and the company checkbook, according to Fanelli.

Some of the holdings could be put up for auction, he said.

Some years ago, the township decertified the fire company that served Tipton, and the process would likely play out in similar fashion, officials said.

There is a presumption that many of the assets would remain local, according to the news release.

The supervisors hope that the Pinecroft members “will work with the township staff and Excelsior Volunteer Fire Department during the transition,” the news release states.

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