Jefferson Hills council tells Gill Hall VFC to merge or stay off borough dispatch

Jefferson Hills officials have given an ultimatum to Gill Hall Volunteer Fire Co. — merge or remain off borough dispatch.

Council voted 4-3 Monday night to recertify the idle department provided it joins Jefferson Hills Fire Rescue.

President Karen Bucy, vice president Dave Montgomery and council members Francis Sockman and Melissa Steffey were in favor of the stipulations.

Council members Keith Reynolds, Vickie Ielase and Nicole Ruscitto dissented.

Motions to recertify Gill Hall as its own fire company with no merger stipulation, and to table the ultimatum both failed by a 2-5 vote with Reynolds and Ruscitto as the only two voting in favor of them.

Reynolds said several times that what council majority wants is a takeover of Gill Hall.

“When you force them to give up all their assets, that is not a merge,” he said. “A merger is mutual. There’s nothing mutual here. It is just a money grab.”

Ruscitto echoed Reynolds’ sentiments about it being a forced merger. Other council members did not explain their vote or respond to emails Tuesday seeking comment.

The only thing council could agree on is there have been ample discussion about the fire departments and something needed to be done.

“Former council kind of left us with the fruitcake that you get at Christmas that keeps getting re-gifted and it’s come back,” she said. “It just keeps coming back and coming back and coming back … I believe this has gone on entirely too long.

“Gill Hall is there. It’s functioning. It’s open. There’s a building. Let them try to succeed. It benefits everybody in our community. If they succeed they succeed, great. That’s what everybody should want … If you don’t succeed, shame on you because you’ve been telling everybody that you can.”

Gill Hall vice president Brian Hutson said he was not surprised by council’s actions, and does not support the merger.

“Nobody’s surprised,” he said. “We expected this. This has been the game for two years now. We’re playing the same tennis match. It hasn’t ended and I don’t expect it to end until the council changes again. We need to get new bodies on council.”

A formal response to council from Gill Hall may be delivered by the end of February.

The 72-year-old, 20-member department was dropped by the borough in January 2019 but the decertification vote didn’t dissolve the department, which owns its fire hall, truck and other equipment.

Gill Hall was reinstated as a borough fire company on a probationary basis in April, but was not placed back on Allegheny County dispatch run cards.

Run cards include information for dispatchers so they know what departments to call out during an emergency.

Gill Hall would operate under JHFR’s run card as 180-3 under council’s recertification stipulation instead of its current 179 card.

“That’s our number,” Hutson said. “That’s the number we’re registered with with Allegheny county 911. The only thing that has to be done is the borough say, ‘dispatch 179.’ The only people preventing this is borough council because they want us to change.”

JHFR is the merged company of Jefferson 885 and Floreffe volunteer fire companies. It has nearly 70 active members.

“I hope Gill Hall would merge with us,” said JHFR Chief Brian Chalfant. “We always wanted them to. If Gill Hall wants to merge, we welcome them.”

JHFR is under an operational merger while other legal paperwork is finalized. Both stations are dispatched on all calls and receive mutual aid depending on the situation.

Communities that assist Jefferson Hills include Elizabeth Borough, Pleasant Hills and Clairton.

Chalfant said there have been no problems with responding to calls in the Gill Hall area while the neighborhood station remains stagnant.

A complete merger with all three departments would ultimately result in one borough department with three stations.

Chalfant said there would be one fire chief, one assistant chief and each station would have its own deputy chief, captain and lieutenant.

All fire tax and Pennsylvania Foreign Fire Insurance funds would also go to JHFR as one borough department instead of being split between the different departments.

Hutson confirmed Tuesday that his department did receive $20,000 in fire tax funds. That disbursement was approved last month.

Council in November approved giving all fire insurance funds to JHFR after voting to decertify Gill Hall again.