Unity's Marguerite, Dryridge fire departments plan merger, cite manpower, financial factors

Crews from the neighboring Marguerite and Dryridge fire departments in Unity are dispatched together on the vast majority of their emergency calls.

If all goes as planned, by next year, they’ll be responding as one department.

The top line officers for the two departments say the intended merger makes sense for the volunteer organizations that each are facing staffing challenges while maintaining some similar vehicles at stations that are less than 2 miles apart.

“The merger is happening because of manpower issues, mostly,” said Wayne Forsyth, Marguerite’s acting fire chief. “It’s also happening because it’s expensive to keep two buildings operating when they’re a mile-and-a-half apart.

“We’re hoping by consolidating that the manpower will stay at least stable but the cost of operating will decrease.”

The Marguerite department was formed in 1939 and has its station on Continental Drive in that former coal town. Dryridge’s department had its start in 1966 and is headquartered along White School Road.

As with many volunteer organizations, including other fire departments, recruiting new members is difficult at the Marguerite and Dryridge stations — even though representatives of the Unity Township Bureau of Fire look to inspire interest by making local school visits.

Marguerite has 20 active firefighters, nine of whom typically respond on calls, Forsyth said.

Dryridge fire Chief Rich Levay said his department has 22 active members — supplemented by two junior firefighters, down from six. In Pennsylvania, junior firefighters ages 14 to 17 can participate in non-hazardous training and some other department functions, but they can’t operate fire vehicles or enter burning buildings.

“At high school, they’re into track, they’re into clay shooting, they’re into football, so it’s dwindled down,” Levay said of the junior contingent. “Recruiting is very hard.”

“Our average response is 4.36 firefighters per call,” Levay said of the Dryridge crew. Forsyth cited a similar response level.

With the merger and a pooled crew, Levay said, “Hopefully, that’s going to go up. That will be better for the whole community.

“We’ll still be looking for new members. We’re not only looking for firefighters; we’re looking for people to help write grants and do the administrative work.”

The combined crew is expected to operate from the Dryridge station, which is in better condition than its older counterpart in Marguerite. That would eliminate insurance and utility costs for one building.

Unity covers liability insurance for local fire departments and provides some funding through a 2-mill fire tax, but the local volunteers must raise the remainder they need to meet expenses.

Forsyth expressed hope that fundraising events for a single department will be more effective than the existing state of two departments competing for dollars in the same general section of the township.

“What we raise will all come to one place instead of being split,” he said.

As part of the merger, Forsyth said, Marguerite’s 2001 pumper truck would move to the Dryridge station. But Marguerite’s rescue and squad trucks likely will be sold since Dryridge already has similar apparatus.

That will mean fewer vehicles to maintain and keep fueled.

“Our diesel fuel price is more than regular gas, and we get 2 to 4 miles per gallon on a truck,” Levay said.

Forsyth estimated the merger would save about $50,000 in building and vehicle-related costs including insurance and fuel.

According to Forsyth, the Marguerite station likely would be placed on the market.

Unlike the Dryridge station, it has a social hall, but that space has not been rented for events since the arrival of the covid-19 pandemic, he said.

Forsyth said the intent is that adjacent recreational property the Marguerite department leases to the township for a nominal fee would be turned over to the municipality, which has been maintaining it.

The site includes a playground, basketball court, pavilion and a ball field — which hosts youth flag football practices as well as games for the West Point Little League and an adult Old Timers League.

He said the department would like to replace a war memorial that’s on the station property and is the centerpiece of Marguerite Memorial Day services. He suggested an updated version acknowledging sacrifices in recent wars might be erected near the pavilion.

A firefighter locker set aside at the Marguerite station in honor of fallen member Keith Firment is slated for relocation to the Dryridge station. Firment, who was a township road crew worker, died in 2004, at 35. He suffered a heart attack after returning from a structure fire.

The merger of the fire departments has been under discussion for close to two years, with the members of each organization voting to begin the process.

Levay and Forsyth hope to get a final vote of approval from their respective members and begin joint operations by the year’s end.

A mailing with information about the merger will be sent to residences in the departments’ combined service area.

A consultant has been assisting with required paperwork — including reviews at the county level and by the state Attorney General’s Office.

The township supervisors also must give their formal approval.

“It makes sense and it’s something that needed to be done,” supervisors Chairman Mike O’Barto said. “I commend both fire departments for their ability to look to the future. Both are working diligently to get the merger in place by the first of the year.”

Among details still to be determined are how the line and administrative officers of the two departments will come together as one and how joint responses with other neighboring fire departments will be affected.

When an emergency calls for multiple fire departments to respond, Forsyth noted, another nearby company may be added to the response once the Dryridge and Marguerite crews have become one department instead of two.

But, Forsyth said, “We’re not foreseeing any issues as far as coverage.”

Last year, Marguerite firefighters responded to about 320 calls while the Dryridge department answered about 390.

Levay said that difference may be partially explained because Dryridge — unlike Marguerite — has a ladder truck and a tanker truck that can get called to assist with fires far afield from Unity Township.

“We run a lot of mutual aid calls with our tanker,” Levay said. “It’s been in the city of Monessen for calls.”

He said the ladder truck must be refurbished because it was damaged while responding to a house fire where “a propane tank let loose.”

The Dryridge-Marguerite merger would reduce the number of fire departments in Unity from seven to six, but it won’t be the first such local combination.

In 2021, the Youngstown Volunteer Fire Department, located in the small adjacent borough of the same name, merged with Unity’s Whitney-Hostetter Volunteer Fire Department.