Four towns authorized joint study in early 2024
If you’re a firefighter in four local towns, or have ever been served by one, keep the night of May 28 free.
That’s the night officials from Ambler and North Wales Boroughs and Lower and Upper Gwynedd Townships will hear a long-discussed study about regionalizing their fire companies.
“Last year, we signed on with Ambler, Lower Gwynedd and Upper Gwynedd to look at a regional fire study, that was commissioned by Upper Gwynedd,” said borough Manager Christine Hart.
“All four municipalities had to sign on, to agree to have DCED come in and evaluate. Our biggest goal was to look at duplication of services, and purchasing of apparatus,” she said.
Back in March 2022 Upper Gwynedd’s fire company leadership asked the township commissioners to approve a study examining options for a new station, citing aging infrastructure, a need for more space, and stricter standards for equipment, training, and maintenance at their current station, located on Garfield Avenue and parts of which date as far back as 1942. That company said it was looking at several possible sites for a new station, and later that month the commissioners approved a contract with the state Governor’s Center for Local Government Services to perform a study.
Officials from the center visited the township in August, and in January 2023 the township said the study was under final vetting; the study itself was presented in spring 2023, and recommended formal study of regionalizing several area companies to see where they could find savings and share services. A joint study was subsequently authorized by all four towns in spring 2024, and at that time the four said they hope the study “will guide us in creating a more efficient and sustainable framework for fire services delivery.”
The study is billed as a “comprehensive, independent analysis of fire services across our four communities,” and “identifies recommendations for enhanced safety, service sustainability, and future regional planning,” per a flier produced and publicized by the four municipalities.
“We are very blessed to have volunteer fire companies in and around Montgomery County, and our commonwealth. We often look at the amount of what a (paid) fire company would cost the borough, and it exceeds the amount of our police department, exponentially,” Hart said.
Recommendations in the study include forming a regional governing structure with representation from all four municipalities, sharing personnel and volunteer recruitment efforts, standardizing training and operations across all departments, and coordinating equipment purchases and facility upgrades, according to reporting from North Penn Now.
“It is a study. It will have recommendations. And we feel it’s important, collectively, to present it to all the municipalities, and anyone who’s interested,” Hart said.
That meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on May 28 at Gwynedd Mercy University’s University Hall, room W105, located at 1325 Sumneytown Pike in Lower Gwynedd, and all four towns will post the meeting info on their social media channels; no streaming or recording will be available, according to Lower Gwynedd staff.
“To hear direct recommendations from DCED, understand the future of fire safety and emergency response in your region, and then have a Q-and-A session,” Hart said.
“It is not an official public hearing: no decisions will be made, no discourse as far as the elected officials that may be in attendance. It is just informational,” she said.
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