Pinecroft, Newburg volunteer fire companies to merge
Move paves way for Pinecroft to resume calls when requested
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The volunteer fire company decertified several months ago by the Antis Township supervisors is merging with a nearby fire company in Logan Township.
The decertification of Pinecroft Volunteer Fire Company due to its refusal to be absorbed by Excelsior Fire Department No. 1 of Bellwood means that Pinecroft is no longer dispatched by the 911 Center to calls in Antis, but the company's merger with Newburg Volunteer Fire Department will enable Pinecroft firefighters to resume answering calls out of the Pinecroft station using their trucks and equipment -- but now as members of a Newburg satellite, when Newburg requests the help, according to Lance Kustaborder, Pinecroft's liaison with Newburg.
Antis Township doesn't object to Pinecroft's merger with Newburg, but plans to formally contest Pinecroft's continued use of its station, trucks and equipment if the opportunity arises -- based on those assets being held in trust for fire protection in Antis, after having been purchased with Antis taxpayer money, according to Antis solicitor Patrick Fanelli.
"Those assets would need to remain devoted to that purpose," Fanelli said.
Antis officials had expected the Charitable Trusts & Organizations section of the state Attorney General's office to intervene on the township's behalf in Blair County Court, as it did a decade ago when Antis decertified the Tipton-Antis Volunteer Fire Company, according to Fanelli.
At that time, the AG's office asked the court to appoint a receiver for the Tipton company's assets and for the involuntary dissolution of the Tipton company, Fanelli said.
Those actions by the AG's office do not appear to be happening in the case of Pinecroft.
The AG's office has approved the Newburg merger, according to Kustaborder.
Moreover, plans are in place for the Pinecroft firefighters to use their station, trucks and other equipment to help Newburg, when Newburg is called out by the 911 Center, and Newburg in turn asks Pinecroft for help, Kustaborder said.
As he understands it, the AG's office hasn't necessarily approved the merger with Newburg, but simply hasn't objected to it, according to Antis Township Manager Doug Brown.
The AG's office hasn't responded to the Mirror's requests for an explanation of its role in the matter.
Control of the Pinecroft assets will probably depend ultimately on a ruling in Blair County Court, based on whose money paid for which components of the Pinecroft assets, according to Holly Fishel, policy and research director for the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors.
Pinecroft leaders didn't want the station and equipment to be auctioned off "for pennies on the dollar," said Ben Hornberger, Antis Township supervisor, member of the Pinecroft company and lone dissenter among the Antis Township supervisors in the decertification of the Pinecroft company.
Pinecroft members raised money for those assets and taxpayers from across the state helped pay for the equipment, according to Hornberger.
Merging with Newburg, moreover, will keep "more firefighters on the job," which is a "win-win -- a no-brainer," Hornberger said.
Meanwhile, 90% of the Pinecroft firefighters have agreed to become members of the Newburg department, according to Kustaborder.
The merger discussions began after Newburg leaders took the initiative, according to Kustaborder.
The members of both departments got along well prior to Pinecroft's decertification, and they've gotten along even better since the merger talks began, he said.
"It's a smooth running engine," Kustaborder said.
The merged company will be called Newburg-Pinecroft, according to Kustaborder.
Pinecroft will be able to send tanker, rescue and brush trucks to help on Newburg calls, Kustaborder said.
Pinecroft will also help Newburg with fundraisers, and is already beginning to plan a Harvest Fest, he said.
Pinecroft ultimately refused to be absorbed by Excelsior when the supervisors asked them to because the Pinecroft assets would have been sold off, and the members didn't want to see that, given the company's long history, Kustaborder said.
The Antis supervisors insisted on Pinecroft being absorbed by Excelsior because Excelsior was by far the stronger company in terms of the number of firefighters answering calls and the number of firefighter certifications, according to the Antis supervisors.
"It was a forced thing," Kustaborder said.
If Pinecroft keeps control of all the assets to use in its role as a Newburg satellite, it would be "a huge disservice to the residents and taxpayers of Antis," Brown said.
It will likely require Antis to petition Blair County Orphans Court to gain control of those assets, according to Brown.
The Logan Township supervisors are not objecting to the merger.
"We don't control what they do," said Logan supervisors Chairman Jim Patterson, speaking of Newburg.
Having a new satellite station is "definitely a plus asset" for the Newburg company, Patterson said.
The Pinecroft station can be used by the joint company for training and for social events, including rentals for gatherings like wedding receptions, Patterson said.
In sorting out which entity is entitled to what, "the devil is in the details," Fishel said.
"It's going to depend on the specifics of how everything is titled," Fishel said.
Outstanding loans can have a bearing on the outcome, she said.
The case will probably end up being decided by a county judge, she predicted.
The AG's office is most likely to get involved actively if state money was used to acquire any of the Pinecroft assets, she said.
Sometimes such money is funneled through the township, she said.
Court decisions can go both ways in such cases, according to online information.
In the matter of Lincoln Fire Company vs. Whitemarsh Township, Commonwealth Court reversed a lower court opinion that had ordered the assets to be distributed to other township fire companies, instead allowing the assets to be distributed as Lincoln's wished -- to a fire academy and a charitable organization, according to an online article from Sherr Law Group.
In the matter of Tobyhanna Township Volunteer Fire Company vs. Tobyhanna Township, Commonwealth Court handed down an opposite ruling, upholding a lower court decision granting the township possession of the company's assets, based on their having been paid for by the township, after the company withdrew from service prior to the township adopting an ordinance to which the company objected, according to a Fire Law Blog article by Curt Verone.
Cases like Pinecroft's in which a decertified company is "just trying to find a home" are fairly common nowadays, according to an expert with an organization that deals with fire companies in Pennsylvania.
Resolving them must happen "case-by-case" by determining who controls what, who paid for what, the expert said.
"There are a lot of complications in how fire companies buy things," he said.
Some assets are bought by companies with their own funds, some are bought by relief associations, some by municipalities, he said.
"It gets real messy," he said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.