Newtown Fire Association members on a call in Newtown Township.
Credit: Newtown Fire Association
The Newtown Township Board of Supervisors and the all-volunteer Newtown Fire Association (NFA) have reached an agreement to keep their relationship going.
The agreement was announced during the Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday evening.
“We would like to thank the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors and Newtown Township Manager for carefully evaluating how to best protect the safety of the Newtown community,” the fire company said in a statement on their website.
As the township’s budgeting for 2017 got underway, Township Manager Kurt Ferguson announced a proposal to set money aside to transition the township from using the NFA to providing its own fire services with help from a new, smaller volunteer department as well as the current paid firefighters. The plan would cut the $300,000 yearly paid by the township to the NFA, which provides fire protection and various other related services to Newtown borough and township. Under the proposed plan, the township would stop using the services of the NFA on December 31, 2017.
At a recent township meeting, Ferguson said previous discussions with the NFA about response times, volunteers, regional partners, equipment evaluations, and equipment were met with resistance.
NFA President Will Fabian said during a previous meeting that the fire association “will continue to be open to new ideas, joint collaboration, and changes made in the best interest of the residents of Newtown.”
The NFA has been around since 127 years.
Publisher Tom Sofield and reporter Amanda Burg contributed to this article.
