FACING A LOUD, AND SOMETIMES HOSTILE, CROWD OF CITIZENS, the Perry County, Pennsylvania (near Harrisburg), Penn Township supervisors voted Friday afternoon to abolish the Perdix Volunteer Fire Company. Perdix was the primary fire department for the entire southern half of the township.
The supervisors then contracted with the Duncannon VFD, that currently covers the northern half of the township, to provide coverage for the entire district. In a very unusual move, the supervisors made it a criminal act for any Perdix volunteer to respond with a penalty of jail time and/or fine. “To a point it angers me that they would do something like this,” Chief Shade Reidlinger told WHTM-TV. Its 20 active members have been shut out. In fact, it’s illegal for them to fight fires, or respond to crashes and medical emergencies.
“We will be arrested, placed in jail for 30 days and given a $300 fine,” Reidlinger said.
WHP-TV Ch. 21 Harrisburg filed this video report from the supervisors’ meeting Friday:
This conflict apparently stems from the Perdix department’s failure to provide proper financial statements to the supervisors. Both departments are contracted by the township and the funds are what operated the FD’s. The Carlisle Sentinel reports:
Officials cited several issues, including problems obtaining financial records, refusal to provide aid to township police and concerns over call responses.
“They should have been more than willing to provide that information,” Supervisor Ce Ce Novinger said about requests to both Perdix and Duncannon for monthly reports on department finances.
Duncannon provided the township with more than adequate materials, but Perdix did not, she said.
The supervisors and the two FD’s have been working for a year to try and resolve the problems, but progress was never made. The Perdix officers were notified last month that this was going to happen.
Read the full STORY HERE.
Duncannon Fire Company WEBSITE.
Perdix Fire Company WEBSITE has been taken down.
