Sep 2, 2020 2 min read

North Franklin Township supervisors are planning to implement a pay-per-call option for their volunteer firefighters.

According to Supervisor Bob Sabot, he proposed during their August meeting an ordinance that would allow for the township’s volunteer firefighters to be paid $20 per call starting Jan. 1.

The proposed ordinance states that the township would provide the fire company with the lump sum of earned stipend on a quarterly basis. Then, the fire company would be responsible for distributing the stipend to the firefighters who responded to the calls for service.

“The Board acknowledges that participation in the Fire Company is an ongoing challenge and believes it to be in the best interest of the Township, its residents and the public at large to encourage participation in the Fire Company by establishing a per call payment amount for qualified volunteers who respond to certain fire calls in the Township,” the ordinance reads.

Sabot said the township is hopeful that the stipend will incentivize more firefighters to respond to calls.

“Numbers have been going down slowly,” he said. “Especially during the day, we don’t have as many firefighters available.”

Within the last year, Sabot said, the township did implement a 20% property tax reduction for volunteer firefighters.

“Up until now, North Franklin has never subsidized the firefighters for their time,” Sabot said.

Fire Chief Dave Bane said that with 10 volunteers, they typically average four people per call, and about 400 calls annually.

“Some of the things we hope for are to give the guys we already have more incentive to come to fire calls and to hopefully attract some new members,” Bane said.

Sabot said the funding for the new per-call payment will come from the township’s general fund, and will not cost taxpayers any additional taxes or fees.

“We don’t have a police department anymore, so obviously we have more revenue to work with,” Sabot said.

The initial language of the ordinance referred to the quarterly payment from the township to the fire company as a “fee.” Sabot said that in order to avoid confusion, the board plans to change that word to “stipend.”

The supervisors are expected to give the ordinance a first reading during their 5:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday, followed by potential adoption of the ordinance in October.