A graduate of La Salle University, Bill Wiegman formerly ran FDMT in Montgomery County
At the Plumstead Township Board of Supervisors Wednesday night, former Fire Department of Montgomery Township Chief Bill Wiegman was sworn in as the municipality’s first career fire chief to lead a fire service transitioning from all-volunteer to combination (volunteer-professional hybrid).
“This is a really big moment for this township,” Plumstead Board of Supervisors Chairman Matt Given said after Wiegman took his oath. “So Bill, I think I speak on behalf of the whole board and the whole township: Welcome. We’re glad to have you.”
By last year, municipal and fire officials largely saw the move toward paid fire staff as unavoidable owing to recruitment concerns. In January, Plumstead launched its search for a professional to hold the joint roles of fire chief, fire marshal, and emergency management coordinator at a salary of $110,000 plus medical and retirement benefits.
Under the newly formed Plumstead Township Fire & Rescue Department, paid staff will supplement the Plumsteadville Volunteer Fire Company’s operations on weekdays. Wiegman will be tasked with overseeing the change whose completion is anticipated this year.
Working under the township’s director of public safety, the new chief will administer budgeting, grant applications, station management, staff supervision, and regulatory compliance. As fire marshal, Weigman will also head fire-prevention efforts, directing inspections and code enforcement as well as local fire-safety instruction. Other emergency-management duties will include coordinating with state and federal disaster-response agencies and updating the township’s emergency response plan.
A graduate of La Salle University and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Wiegman is now working to obtain his doctorate in public administration. He began working as a firefighter in 1996 for the Lower Southampton Fire Department, eventually becoming a captain and a training officer. He later joined the Fire Department of Montgomery Township, Montgomery County, serving as volunteer chief from 2010 to 2013 and as career chief after 2020 at what is now a combination department.
In that role, he led the charge to expand that department’s career fire staffing in response to lengthening response times and volunteer recruitment difficulties.
Officials debated how much to raise taxes to fund the change; this year, Montgomery Township adopted a one-mill fire tax to fund the expansion.
Despite the contentions surrounding those changes, Wiegman’s fraught departure as Montgomery Township chief spurred a local effort to urge municipal leaders to rehire him. On February 26, many fire personnel and residents spoke during public comment period in favor of reinstating him.
His supporters credited him with resolving tensions between career and volunteer firefighters, fostering a “one department, one mission” culture. According to department relief association president Angel Meijas, more than 300 township residents signed a petition seeking Wiegman’s reappointment.
While they didn’t get their way, many of his fellow Montgomery Township firefighters filled the supervisors’ meeting room in Plumstead to support their former chief as he takes his new job, a sight he considered humbling and “really cool.”
Wiegman said he would stay involved in the department in Montgomery Township, where he still lives, on a volunteer basis. He also said he looks forward to helming fire services in Plumstead as new paid personnel come aboard.
“I’m super excited for the opportunity to lead this transition and be part of a township that’s so committed to public safety,” he told "The Bucks County Independence" after Magisterial District Judge Gary Gambardella swore him in. “I’m overjoyed that they picked me and they gave me the opportunity. I’m going to do the best I can for them and we’re going to do it together as a team.”
In light of a volunteer shortage, PVFC leaders ultimately embraced the shift toward career staffing.
“It’s inevitable,” PVFC President Mark Banas told "The Independence" at the company’s Annual Car & Truck Show at Tohickon Middle School last August. “We’re not against it. That’s where it has to go.”
Banas said students ages fourteen and above can get involved in Plumsteadville’s department via its junior program. He said PVFC considered holding a summer camp last year to acquaint youth with fire service, though the idea did not generate enough interest.
Banas said he believes government incentives for volunteer firefighters deserve support. He lauded Bucks County for its emergency volunteer tax rebate program, though he noted it made no difference for the majority of local firefighters who rent and therefore pay no property taxes.
Station 24’s volunteer chief Marc Longo, also discussing the matter at the car show, viewed the change afoot in Plumstead much the same way Banas did. Longo also cited the local cost of living as a key factor affecting recruitment.
“I’m supportive of it and I think it’s inevitable,” he said. “It’s going to happen because we don’t have the people to volunteer. And the problem we have here in Plumsteadville is the housing market’s way overpriced, so I only have one firefighter [out of 40 firefighters] under the age of 40 who owns a home.”
He went on to say that volunteer members who start families tend to look outside of Plumstead Township when they house hunt.
A sixteen-year veteran of PVFC, Longo said that when he first arrived in the gradually suburbanizing community, interest in volunteering kept stations staffed by eight to ten people a day. That number has dwindled to one or two.
“It’s not enough to put a fire out,” he said.
Experts also have observed widespread lifestyle changes making it difficult for communities to attract and retain emergency-service volunteers.
“I think the principal cause is just American life,” Connecticut-based Yankee Institute labor fellow Frank Ricci said. “Just take kids playing sports.”
He recalled that a few decades ago, parents would take their athlete children to perhaps one game and one practice in a week, whereas youngsters now often devote multiple evenings per week to their sports.
“Both parents are working and then they’re shuffling around kids, and the time commitment to be a volunteer firefighter has increased,” he said.
Ricci, an editorial board member of Fire Engineering magazine, a retired battalion chief, and a former union president of New Haven Fire Fighters, said that firefighter union efforts have combined with cultural changes to move some jurisdictions to form career departments. Nevertheless, he said, government at all levels should exercise what options it can to maintain a strong volunteer firefighting component.
Career staff, he explained, cannot simply replace unpaid personnel everywhere; the two categories of firefighters complement each others’ efforts. His colleague Eric Bernard, president Rockville (Maryland) Volunteer Fire Department, agreed, mentioning that 25 to 35 percent of volunteer firefighters and volunteer EMTs eventually work in those fields for their livelihoods.
In addition to tax incentives, both Ricci and Bernard opined, localities and school systems should implement junior or “Explorer” emergency-service programs that familiarize youth with these services. Ricci himself became an emergency medical technician at fifteen, having joined an Explorer program in high school.
Bernard, a Pittsburgh native, also began firefighting while in high school. He lauded local cadet programs in Rockville that facilitate fire staff mentoring junior and high school seniors who become certified by the time they graduate.
“It’s a tool in our toolbox,” Bernard said, adding that such programs are not a panacea. “It’s hard for midsize communities that rely on 100-percent volunteer responses to be successful in a day and age where the amount of training required to be a firefighter these days is such that not many people have time to do it.”
Pennsylvania, he said, has seen volunteer fire participation decline by roughly half since the 1980s.
Another policy area Ricci believes public officials need to examine is the clearance requirements for those who want to give their time to protect their neighbors. For instance, he said, while high-level personnel would need interior firefighting credentials, other individuals could more easily receive training to drive and pump the water apparatus.
Area townships with some form of hybrid fire department include Warwick, Newtown, and Warminster. Communities in Pennsylvania and beyond have moved toward hiring career firefighters once they find recruitment challenges too burdensome.
The use of paid fire personnel, of course, comes with a burden of its own in the form of higher taxes, which have risen significantly in Plumstead Township. The municipal property tax rate rose by 3.75 mills over last year’s rate to a total of 18.69 mills.
“You want people to be able to grow up in your state, work in your state, and retire in your state,” Ricci said. “And retiring in your state has a lot to do with property taxes and income taxes. So if you took your municipality and you were forced to bring in career departments, you’re going to see a significant rise in property taxes.”
The commonwealth has attempted to maintain interest among potential volunteers by enabling localities to offer tax incentives. Lawmakers have introduced new proposals to boost the effort, including a bill by State Representative Brenda Pugh (R-Luzerne) to provide a $6,000 tax credit per year over five years to Pennsylvania-based emergency service personnel. The bill is now before the State House Finance Committee.
Meanwhile, a proposal by State Senator Michele Brooks (R-Crawford) to make volunteer firefighters’ paths to certification more flexible, received unanimous support in her chamber and in a House committee vote during this legislative session.
Bradley Vasoli is the senior editor of The Independence.
