Jan 29, 2024 By Jon Andreassi 5 min read

In 2021 frustrations within the South Strabane Fire Department spilled over into public view as volunteers put out public letters detailing frustrations with township officials.

Some of those criticisms were levied specifically at the supervisors over concerns about funding and the purchase of a $130,000 truck that year. However, there was also internal friction between the volunteers and paid staff.

“There was quite a bit of turmoil between the career staff and the volunteer staff. The leadership at that time really didn’t do anything to try to quell it. In fact, I think it may have been enhancing it a little bit,” said Fred Allen.

Allen has been with the department for 48 years and is currently the treasurer. He previously served as the assistant chief.

He went on to credit current Chief Jordan Cramer, who the supervisors appointed in April 2022, for helping to create a more harmonious culture.

“It really didn’t change until Chief Cramer came along and brought the concept, true concept, of a combination department with volunteers and career staff working together. Things smoothed out rather quickly, I believe, and have continued to get better since then,” Allen said.

Since Cramer took over, the department is now staffed 24/7.

The fire department has stations at 172 Oak Spring Road and 1696 E. Maiden St.

Wendi Wentzell, a career firefighter, EMT and the union’s secretary treasurer, pointed out the toll the work could take on volunteers while the department was not staffed at all hours. At the time, there were only 12 volunteers at the department.

“I feel like there was a lot of burden based on so few volunteers that were coming to answer calls, that it was like taking away their life from them. So that has lessened up a bit,” Wentzell said as Paul Winter nodded along in agreement. “I’ve seen firsthand with Paul, that can be emotionally and physically draining on folks.”

Winter, the volunteer assistant chief, said that previously he would be responding to every call that came through.

“Nowadays with having staffing, the pager goes off at 1 o’clock in the morning to check some low hanging wires or there’s a tree branch in the roadway, I’m not having to get out of bed, come here, interrupt my sleep schedule and going to my career to answer a call while we have staffing on at the time. Now if a secondary call comes in, yeah, I’m going,” Winter said.

Cramer called the combination fire system, “a beautiful thing,” when managed properly. He acknowledged there can be difficulties in getting both volunteers and career firefighters to land on the same page.

“Trying to get those two groups to jive sometimes in organizations is difficult. It’s not just here, all over the country there are difficulties with that,” Cramer said. “But, there are also a lot of success stories, and we’re trying to ensure that we are a model department at some point that people can look at.”

According to Cramer, emotions could run high on certain issues, but that the key for the department was finding some common ground.

“I think that so many people were willing to put some of their personal beliefs, some of their emotions aside and just say, ‘How can we do this together?” Cramer said. “The career staff and volunteer staff welcomed new ideas with open arms, and that’s what allowed this to flourish.”

The cultural shift has already started attracting people to South Strabane, as Winter said their volunteer numbers are “ever growing.”

In 2023, Cramer said they brought in six active firefighters, three support members and three new junior firefighters.

“With the now positive culture that we have, and the direction of the department, it’s very welcoming for new people. We’ve taken a large influx of new people over the last two years,” Winter said.

Winter added that they have managed this without any sort of recruitment campaign.

“I mean, we could, but we’re at at a time right now where we’re focusing resources on training the people that are coming in … Trying to find them gear, trying to find them lockers, rather than trying to get people in the door. We’ve been successful at that. Now we have to develop them and mold them,” Cramer said.

Of concern to South Strabane residents as supervisors crafted the 2023 budget was the addition of 0.75 mill “fire tax”. The tax was implemented after the purchase of a $1.3 million truck with a 107 foot ladder.

Cramer explained how this eases the burden on volunteers.

“In April of 2022, the volunteers were paying for the vast majority of the operational expenses, while the township was covering salaries, benefits and a lot of those types of things. They weren’t contributing towards fuel, apparatus and other types of significant costs,” Cramer said.

Cramer added that volunteers can instead put resources toward purchasing new equipment.

The fire tax generates more than $930,000 annually, but Cramer clarified how that money ends up impacting their budget.

“Why does the fire department need $900,000 more? That’s not what happened, necessarily,” Cramer said. “That money is specific to fire protection, so it can’t be spent on anything else. However, all of our expenses are coming out of that. So what it did was free up money from the general fund to go towards other departments as well.”

As the department moves forward, Winter pledged that both sides of the equation, “will work as one.”

“The one thing we’ve ingrained to change the culture was the emphasis on moving forward together, and that is something that we will continue to do,” Winter said.