Metro

Blair County Judge Lou Schmitt Thursday dismissed a temporary injunction he’d previously granted that had stopped the Antis Township supervisors from decertifying the Pinecroft Volunteer Fire Company for refusing to be absorbed into Excelsior Fire Department of Bellwood by a deadline the supervisors had set for early last month.

The judge is sympathetic to Pinecroft, but it wouldn’t be right for him to substitute the court’s judgment for the properly exercised political discretion of the supervisors, who comprise a legislative body, Schmitt wrote in his ruling.

The injunction’s dismissal immediately triggers the previously approved decertification, and township officials began to implement that decertification Thursday afternoon, notifying the Charitable Trusts and Organizations Section of the state Attorney General’s office, which will ultimately petition Blair County court to appoint a receiver to dispose of the Pinecroft assets; and the Blair County 911 Center, which will remove Pinecroft from its list of fire companies to be called for emergency response, according to township solicitor Patrick Fanelli.

Pinecroft had argued that the township’s action to decertify was “arbitrary and capricious,” the judge noted.

But there were two state studies of the township fire service that recommended unifying the fire service and five public meetings in which the unification issue was discussed, with input from both companies and residents, the judge pointed out.

“The deliberation and decision-making process of the Antis Township Supervisors in this matter was well within its power to regulate fire companies” as provided in the state’s code of statutes, in a section on the authority of municipal supervisors, Schmitt wrote.

“(The) court is legally and constitutionally prohibited from second-guessing the duly elected representatives of the people,” Schmitt wrote. “If the court were to insinuate its own decision in place of that of the Antis Township Board of Supervisors, it would be making public policy, which is not the province of the judicial branch.”

Ultimately, “the remedy available to Pinecroft and the people of Antis Township lies in the ballot box,” Schmitt added.

“And the ballot box is what I and many others in Antis Township will use to defeat (the supervisor who made the motion to decertify) and the others who voted to raise taxes while decreasing services,” wrote Supervisor Ben Hornberger — a member of the Pinecroft company and the only supervisor who voted against decertification — in a text exchange with the Mirror.

“I don’t fault Judge Schmitt,” Hornberger wrote. “He ruled based on the law.”

Hornberger recommended that township residents unhappy with the decertification should call the other supervisors, along with local lawmakers to express their concerns.

The receiver appointed to oversee dissolution of the Pinecroft assets, including the fire station, trucks and equipment, will evaluate what the company owns and owes, disposing of what he must to discharge the company’s debts, while working with the township to ensure as much as possible that the remaining assets go to benefit the township’s fire service, now limited to Excelsior, according to Fanelli and Township Manager Doug Brown.

Fanelli is familiar with the process, having experienced it in 2016, when the township decertified the Tipton Volunteer Fire Company after an unsatisfactory audit, according to Fanelli and online sources.

The Pinecroft station may be partially encumbered with a loan, according to Brown.

The station has been used as a polling place, and the township will need to talk to Blair County Election Office officials about that, Brown said.

Pinecroft Fire Chief Caleb Keller sounded philosophical after learning the judge’s decision.

“What (board of supervisors) decides they decide,” Keller said. “I wish the best for the residents.”

He does not plan to apply to join Excelsior, he said.

He doesn’t know how many other Pinecroft firefighters might join, he said.

The main reason for Pinecroft’s refusal to be absorbed into Excelsior by the supervisors’ deadline was the reluctance of company members to lose the company’s identity, Pinecroft attorney Joe Addink has said.

The sides just needed more time to work out an arrangement, according to Addink, who had asked the judge in a hearing last week to extend the injunction to June 1.

Excelsior was by far the stronger company in terms of fully trained firefighters and the number of such firefighters who responded to the average call, township officials have pointed out.

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