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EDITOR’S NOTE: Luzerne County 911 did not decertify the department, county 911 Executive Director Fred Rosencrans said Thursday. Rather, 911 only removed them at the township supervisors’ direction. An earlier version of this story was incorrect on that point.
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PLYMOUTH TWP. — Despite resounding criticism from township residents and repeated threats to vote out the board, Plymouth Township supervisors officially voted on Wednesday night to decertify its volunteer fire department.
Township supervisors seemed prepared for the special meeting to be a contentious one, as they had contacted constables to be present at the meeting. More than one resident was removed from the meeting, for boisterous outbursts.
Township supervisor Gale Conrad largely led the meeting, beginning with a lengthy summation of what led to the decertification.
Conrad suggested the township’s hands were tied in the face of nearly half a million dollars of debt taken out by the fire department in a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While the township originally planned to build a new firehouse for the department, Conrad said those plans couldn’t come to fruition once they learned that every piece of equipment in the original firehouse was tied up in the loan.
“It threw all our plans out the window in that moment,” she told residents.
Conrad said emergency duties would be taken over by Nanticoke, Plymouth, Larksville and Lake Silkworth, saying things would be just as safe.
Plymouth Township Fire Chief Barry Lore, though, claimed there were numerous issues with the plan.
“In the event of a major disaster, I don’t care what it is, they’ll help their residents first,” Lore said.
Lore also accused the supervisors of being disingenuous with the township, since the vote did to decertify did not practically change anything, since the fire department had been blocked from responding to calls for the past two weeks.
Many township residents spoke out at the meeting, with the overwhelming majority speaking out in favor of the fire department.
“Raise my taxes $100. I would rather see the fire company protect us, because now my insurance is going to go up,” one woman said.
Only two residents spoke out against the fire company, criticizing them for not coming to township meetings.
The township supervisors voted unanimously to decertify the company — despite supervisor Joseph Yudichak’s claims at the beginning of the meeting to base his decision on the comments made at the meeting.
When the vote was clear, the vast majority of attendees at the meeting stormed out, with many screaming at the supervisors on their way out, telling them they would not make it through the upcoming election.
The township supervisors also voted unanimously to certify the four aforementioned fire companies as the new official companies of Plymouth Township, but few people besides media and members of those companies were around to hear it.