Three high-ranking officials of the Citizens Fire Company offered their letters of resignation Thursday.
Those resigning include Chief and President Dave Lynch, Assistant Chief Mike Beckwith and Treasurer Amanda Snyder.
Lynch told The Daily Herald that he is still a member of the fire company, but he resigned as president and chief because of the frustrations with the financial problems and with the complaints about the youth dances. He said that he was not authorized by the fire company to comment any further on the matter.
He also said that Beckwith and Snyder are no longer members of the fire company.
Secretary and second lieutenant of the fire company Rod Zimmerman expressed his regrets about Lynch, Beckwith and Snyder’s resignations and said they “went above and beyond” what the jobs required.
Zimmerman felt they did the best job they could under the existing financial problems of the fire company, and said of the resignations, “I tried to talk them out of it, but it just wasn’t going to happen.”
Also, leaders voted not to desist holding youth dances in the social hall on Friday evenings.
The decision to cancel the youth dances and the three resignations came after members of the fire company received a letter from the Tyrone Borough Council earlier in the week that requested the dances to be stopped, or funding would be pulled by the borough.
Borough council members unanimously approved to send the letter at Monday’s night’s council meeting after Tyrone Police Chief Joe Beachem spoke to council members about the youth dances. He said the dances were related to numerous problems, including juvenile crimes, underage drinking, vandalism, loitering and fights that the police department has had to deal with over the past months.
Beachem previously sent a letter to the fire company asking that these problems stop, and council member Jim Beckwith also attended a meeting with members of the fire company to discuss ways to curb the problems at the dances.
According to Beachem the problems really did not stop, and so that is why council members voted to send another letter to ask that the youth dances stop.
Mayor Pat Stoner told the Daily Herald that she had not yet been officially notified of the decision by the fire company to stop the youth dances, so she could not comment on the situation.
Council member Jim Beckwith said he was unsure if the Citizens had sent an official letter to the borough or not about canceling the dances.
When Beckwith was notified by the Daily Herald, he said, “I’m glad that they canceled the dances. There have been a lot of problems and both the chief of police and council had requested them to do so, and I’m glad they did that.”
A special meeting was scheduled by the fire company for last evening to discuss possible members to fill the vacated positions of chief and president, assistant chief and treasurer as well as the future of the Citizens Fire Company. According to Zimmerman, the persons appointed to the positions of chief and assistant chief of the fire company need to be approved by borough council.
The fire company did hold a dance last evening, and according to a borough police officer, Beachum left no instructions to the working officers concerning the dance.
