Mill Hall Borough to Seek Alternatives to Mill Hall Fire Company

By Christopher Miller

MILL HALL – Borough Council voted unanimously to create a sub-committee to meet with and evaluate alternative emergency service providers for the borough.

Mill Hall Volunteer Fire Company was recently in discussions with the borough in November 2023 regarding not providing up-to-date training certificates for their officers.

Representatives of the fire company were present Tuesday evening to speak with the borough council.

“Here are the required certifications for you to review and here is also a list of training that have been available via our county for this year. We do not have a lot of the training needed to fill the ordinance and we also have to work around schedules of volunteers who work, their jobs and families,” Donald Grant said. 

“In the training that was available, at least half of them were training that certain stations did on their own. As you can see we are not where we need to be yet. It seems like the borough is just on us for the past three years, going on four. It does not help to create camaraderie or incentive for people to want to join.”

Councilman Derek Berry mentioned that fire department members do not normally come to borough council meetings aside from Chief Tony Walker who is a borough councilman

“Please attend every and any meeting that you feel is necessary for you,” Berry said. “And I have not seen that here until now. There is nobody that shows up here from the fire company. You need to send some sort of representation besides Tony Walker.”

“If you are a volunteer firefighter and you are proud of that, why do you not take pride in the training to give yourself a better set of tools to use in any situation. The pushback from the fire company choosing to not do things because of having to pay for them, no, you adopted them as standard operating guidelines and you’re not doing them.”

“Do your job, put these guys in a place to win and succeed. If you don’t want to do that, then I suggest you step back and let someone who wants to do that, do that,” Berry said.

Classes are regularly held in Lycoming and Centre Counties for mandatory training and exams for certifications. 

“We can’t get young members. When I joined the fire company 50 years ago, it was because I wanted to help the community. Young kids just don’t care to join today,” a gentleman named Skip said. 

“We are not promoting retention,” Chief Tony Walker said. “We should be trying to retain some of our members.”

Grant then cited that the way the ordinances are, they continue to change and are unrealistic.

“Every time we turn around the ordinance is being increased and changed, more things added to it. It makes it disheartening.”

Councilman Derek Berry then read a prepared statement.

“In putting this sub-committee together, Mill Hall Borough Council has great interest in fire protection and emergency services for the residents of Mill Hall Borough. Mill Hall Borough is going to create a sub-committee that is evaluating and going to meet with other emergency service providers to look at possible solutions for the borough to fill the requirements of the borough’s ordinance.”

Mill Hall Borough Council voted unanimously.