Hempfield will meet with its 11 fire departments to discuss having all of them being managed by the township.

North Hempfield Fire Department became Hempfield’s first “nonchartered station” — managed entirely by the township — in 2021. That means all of its expenses are paid by the township.

The township hopes to use a forum — tentatively scheduled for March — to encourage more stations to become nonchartered, said fire Chief Anthony Kovacic.

“As this starts to build more momentum, we want to bring everybody in,” he said.

With support from the township, the stations would be free to focus solely on responding to fires, Township Manager Aaron Siko said.

“It takes that burden off of the fire department from having to worry about roof repairs or the groundskeeping to just becoming dedicated volunteer firemen,” Siko said. “We don’t want them out there doing boot drives. We want them out there responding to fire calls.”

The township also hopes to pitch a vision for the future of the Hempfield Fire Department and answer firefighters’ questions about being a nonchartered station, Siko said.

“We’re a big community, and we have a lot of residences and businesses that we serve,” Siko said. “And, certainly, we want to make sure we are doing our utmost to provide that protection.”

The township has received a letter of intent from the Midway-St. Clair Fire Department to become a nonchartered station, and there may be another on the way, Siko said.

Hempfield No. 2 station also began the process but eventually backed out.

“Hempfield No. 2 started going through the process, and, at the last hour, there were some questions that came up,” Siko said. “They weren’t in a position where they felt they were able to make that commitment to the township.”

After submitting a letter of intent to become nonchartered, the fire stations would have to provide information about their building, property and finances to the township, Siko said.

Each station would then go through a court proceeding to eliminate its chartered status.

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