Newtown Borough Terminates Fire Agreement with Township

From the transcript of the 21 May 2025 Newtown Borough Council meeting:

Borough Council President Emily Heinz: “I’d like to make a motion to authorize the solicitor to notify Newtown Township of the Borough's election to terminate the Borough's participation in the current fire services agreement.”

The motion passed unanimously.

The following day, Newtown Township received a letter via email from the Newtown Borough Solicitor notifying the Township that the Borough decided to terminate the Agreement with the Township for fire coverage effective December 31, 2025.

Current Agreement Terms

The current agreement was approved by both parties in 2022. Terms of the agreement specify that the Borough pay the Township starting at $154,365.00 per year, $147,155 of which is base Compensation and $7,210 of which is related to capital expense of purchasing a command vehicle. Beginning on January 1 of each year after 2022, the base Compensation of $147,155 shall increase by a factor of five percent (S%) and shall continue to be paid to the Township by the Borough in advance in equal monthly installments.

Obviously, the Borough does not like the terms of the current agreement. As the history of this agreement reveals, the Borough never did wish to pay what the Township thought was fair.

Some History

At the 16 February 2021 Newtown Township Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting, Fire Chief Glenn Forsyth reminded the Board that the Township provides the Borough with fire protection services during the business day - 6AM to 6PM, Monday through Friday. The Chief said that about 14% of calls to the Department are for Newtown Borough.

The board of supervisors [at its July 14, 2021, PUBLIC meeting] put Newtown Borough on notice that it intends to begin charging it $300,000 a year for full-time fire service.

This action was taken after behind-closed-doors negotiations between the township and the borough failed to yield a negotiated fee and an intergovernmental agreement.

During those talks, which supervisor John Mack termed “difficult,” the borough offered to pay up to $118,000 a year, less than the annual cost for one paid firefighter, which equates to about $150,000, said Mack.

“We were willing to come to a lower number than $300,000, but (Dennis) Fisher and I felt they were unmovable,” said Mack. “They kept going back to the number of calls and they had a complicated formula that to me seemed just like a way to stall. They weren’t willing to compromise beyond the $118,000. That’s why we broke off the discussions.”

Difficult Negotiations Ahead!

Given this history, it is likely that the Borough will again balk at paying even the negotiated lower yearly compensation specified by the current agreement. By my calculations, the 2025 compensation is about $162,000, not including the $7,210 for the command vehicle.

Negotiations will again likely be “difficult.” Keep in mind that the township hired four new full-time firefighters. In 2023, the township was awarded a FEMA “Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response” (SAFER) Grant of $1,556,953 to cover most of the expense of hiring and paying the salaries and benefits these firefighters bu ONLY FOR 3 YEARS! Given the current FEMA situation, it is unlikely that the township will see further funding from the agency to pay for these additional firefighters.

UPDATE (28 May 2025): At the 28 May 2025 BOS meeting, Board Chair Elen Snyder said “Unless something happens, as of January first 2025 they [the Borough] will have no protection.”  A distinction must be made between emergency services and fire protection services. Firefighters respond to emergencies when and where needed without regard to who pays them or who does not!

Posted on 28 May 2025, 12:37 - Category: First Responders