Jade Campos – LNP, Lancaster, Pa.
Mar. 8—As East Hempfield Township’s fire chief, John Kottmyer plans for “armageddon” but hopes for the best.
Armageddon, he said, will happen the moment township leaders decide they need to hire a full staff of professional firefighters.
Right now, Kottmyer said officials are doing everything they can to hold onto the roughly 40 volunteers who staff the Rohrerstown and Hempfield fire stations.
“Everyone always asks the question, ‘When do you think it will have to switch? When will you cease being a volunteer fire department?’ And my standard response is, ‘When it happens,'” Kottmyer said. “There is no crystal ball.”
Professional firefighters are an expensive cost to tack onto the growing list of expenses it takes to run any fire company — which is why Kottmyer uses such an apocalyptic word to describe the potential change.
The volunteer fire departments serving East Hempfield will cost the township $1.5 million in 2025, a 29% jump from last year. And budget projections show fire expenses will increase by around $1 million over the next five years if the volunteer model can be sustained.
Scott Wiglesworth, chairman of the township’s board of supervisors, acknowledges that the costs are becoming unmanageable.
“At the current rate that (costs) are going up, we’re not going to be able to get away without some kind of service fee or tax increase as we’re going forward,” Wiglesworth said. “We’re trying to start that conversation.”
Diane Garber, East Hempfield’s emergency services coordinator, said the cost of fire trucks has soared in recent years, so the township has agreed to shoulder the rising costs to take the burden off of the volunteer departments to raise the money themselves.
Chicken barbeque sales were a longtime staple of volunteer fire stations, but the fundraisers are a drop in the bucket when it comes to purchasing a $1.4 million ladder truck. Ten years ago, the cost of the same truck would have been around $500,000.
Fundraising takes a lot of effort but brings in less than volunteer companies need to operate. And the hard work of organizing fundraisers is in addition to the long hours of training, paperwork and actual firefighting that comes with being a volunteer. Time pressures are one reason why fire companies across the state are struggling to recruit sufficient numbers of volunteers.
“Our departments and the surrounding departments and departments all across the state have tried giving people nicer clothes, putting placements in local restaurants, have tried billboards. They have tried websites, they have sent mailers, they have done Facebook and all the social media, they have phone a friend,” Garber said. “Everything possible that is easily taken on by a volunteer fire department is being done or has been tried.”
Proactive solutions
Municipalities across the state have grappled with the volunteer fire department model since the 1970s. A 2018 report by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives found that the number of volunteer firefighters statewide fell by around 260,000 over 40 years.
Jerry Ozog, public safety specialist for the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, said people just don’t have the time to volunteer anymore. Call volumes are up and training standards have soared. Vehicle prices are at an all time high, which Ozog attributed to a consolidation of the apparatus industry, meaning volunteers need to spend even more time fundraising to afford to serve the community.
Joining the local fire company is no longer something a significant number of community members do. As a result, Ozog said municipal and fire officials need to work together to improve volunteer retention while also preparing a recruitment campaign for professional firefighters.
“If the volunteer fire service is gonna go away in Pennsylvania, we let it go away,” Ozog said. “You gotta step up and solve the problem in your organization. You have to be proactive and not let your fire department get to a point where there’s nobody left.”
Ozog said many municipalities are setting more money aside to fund volunteer stations. For example, East Hempfield contributed $679,891 for the township’s fire services in 2010. This year, the township is projected to give $1.5 million.
Volunteer fire services need a predictable stream of revenue to sustain themselves, which doesn’t come from fundraisers anymore. East Hempfield is a good example of a proactive community, Ozog said.
Kottmyer is a full-time employee, for example. His position was called for in a multiyear strategic plan drafted to confront problems facing the local fire stations. As fire chief, Kottmyer oversees the administrative work that comes with fighting fires like investigations and submitting grant applications.
Kottmyer’s salary is a cost to township taxpayers, but his position takes the burden off of the volunteers who’d otherwise spend time filing paperwork on their own.
The township also spends $479,000 a year on contract drivers for Rohrerstown who are on call 24/7 to fill in manpower gaps throughout the day. Paying for the drivers, who are trained firefighters, may seem counterproductive to the goal of retention, Kottmyer said, but it helps the volunteers feel supported.
The township in 2017 also approved a tax rebate for volunteers who live in the township. It costs a little bit of money every year, Garber said, but it’s a worthwhile sacrifice in the face of major personnel costs.
Fire tax
Several county municipalities are using property taxes to maintain their volunteer departments. In 2011, Manor Township and Millersville Borough agreed to take on the costs of Blue Rock Fire Rescue, a merger of the former West Lancaster, Millersville, Highville and Washington Boro fire companies.
At the time of the merger, Manor Township created a fire tax, which essentially earmarks a portion of property tax revenue for the fire station. The tax was raised to .41 mills this year and is expected to generate $637,200 to cover $615,352 in expenses. It’s the first time the fire budget has grown since 2011, too.
“We’d like our volunteer firefighters fighting fires,” Manor Township Manager Ryan Strohecker said. “It takes a lot of time to keep our volunteer fire company sustainable.”
Denver Borough, with a population of less than 4,000 people, adopted its own fire tax this year to raise $110,000.
Randy Gockley, the county’s former emergency management coordinator and longtime volunteer with Ephrata’s Lincoln Fire Company, said a fire tax could be a “fairer” system given the declining number of people living in a company’s service area who donate directly to the fire stations. He estimated around 25% of borough residents give a yearly contribution compared to 75% when he began in the 1970s.
“When you look at police departments and other parts of government, staffing is the big budget (driver),” Gockley said. “The volunteer fire system eliminates the cost of staff. We need help providing the station and the apparatus.”
‘Can’t stave this off’
Like Kottmyer, fire officials across the county are bracing for armageddon. Gockley said it’s unrealistic to assume that volunteer stations like Lincoln Fire will stay intact forever. But it’s probably also unrealistic to believe that Ephrata could afford a full-time professional fire company, he said.
Reamstown Fire Company, which serves East Cocalico Township, recently merged with nearby Smokestown Fire Company. Consolidation is another recommendation the state makes to respond to dwindling volunteers amid rising costs.
Reamstown Chief Scott Achey said the two companies wanted to come together because it no longer made sense financially to do everything apart while in such close proximity. Despite the change, Achey agreed it’s likely that professional fire staff will be needed at some point in the future.
“We love to do what we do, and we enjoy helping the community. It’s the only way you could do this, you have to really love what you do. But it is coming, we can’t stave this off forever,” Achey said.
Manheim Township Manager Rick Kane, who served as the township’s fire chief until 2022, said he’s constantly fielding questions from managers across the county about how the township manages a career department. He estimates the department is roughly 95% full-time and part-time firefighters.
The answer is simple, he said. Manheim Township has a larger tax base than most municipalities in the county. In 2023, the Census Bureau estimated there are more than 44,000 township residents. Right next door, East Hempfield had just under 27,000.
Manheim Township started transitioning away from total volunteer services in 2009, when commissioners implemented a .43 mill fire tax. Kane predicts the tax will eventually be phased out in favor of simply raising real estate taxes.
Officials considering a transition to professional fire departments should take a gradual approach, Kane said. Trepidation about the change is understandable, he said.
“Those places that are fearful of that, (and) they should be,” Kane said. “Because it costs a (whole lot) of money, there’s no bones about it.”
© 2025 LNP (Lancaster, Pa.). Visit lancasteronline.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
