There may be a change in the fire ranks of the Tyrone Borough Council.
\nLast month, council accepted the resignation of Fire Chief Jim Beckwith. He had served in the position for 28 years and until the closure of the Citizen\u2019s Fire Company was in charge of three companies constituting the department.
\nNow, the idea of having no single fire chief in charge of the two remaining companies was brought forth at last night\u2019s meeting. Instead, council is now considering a three member committee consisting of the fire chiefs of the two remaining companies and a member of council who is not part of the fire department.
\n\u201cThe fire chief is appointed by the borough to overall see all the companies in the department, company chiefs are elected within in the company and are then presented before council for final approval,\u201d explained Beckwith after last night\u2019s meeting.
\n\u201cWhen Citizen\u2019s went out of business it left the community with only two fire companies,\u201d said Beckwith. \u201cIn many other communities where there are two or less companies there is no overall fire chief.\u201d
\nCouncilman J.R. Watson said Bellefonte and Huntingdon are two communities operating without an overall fire chief.
\nBeckwith indicated, in his absence, when an incident occurs, the senior fire chief (the company chief with the most years of experience as a chief) would take command of the scene if more than one company was called to it. Beckwith further explained the procedure will continue even if the borough goes to the new system of having no overall fire chief. Currently, Ray Stringer and Bob Lynn are the chiefs of Tyrone\u2019s two remaining companies.
\nBeckwith also explained the overall chief\u2019s position comes up for appointment in even years, while company chiefs are elected in odd years. This would create the possibility of both chiefs being replaced in the same year leaving neither with seniority or experience in running the overall department.
\n Mayor Patricia Stoner directed the borough solicitor Larry Clapper to prepared an ordinance to be considered as soon as next week\u2019s council meeting. The need to adopt the ordinance quickly is necessitated by Beckwith\u2019s retirement at the end of the month; however, the longtime chief indicated he\u2019d stay on board after the turn of the year, perhaps an additional month if the matter isn\u2019t resolved prior to his retirement date of Dec. 31.
\nIn other business, Tyrone Borough voted to create a board of health and approved four members to the board. Council is also considering adding an additional fifth member with a medical background at a later time. The move was made ahead of the consideration of another ordinance which would regulate tattoo establishments in the borough. The unadvertised ordinance passed unanimously.
\nAlso, from last night\u2019s meeting, council:
\n\u2022approved a payment request from Hickes Associates for new pumps at the water plant. The payment of $239,260.74 will be made through the sewer reserve fund;
\n\u2022heard concerns from the Allegheny Rod Club regarding recent road restrictions in the watershed area. Council agreed to lift some of the restrictions during certain hunting periods and work with the club to allow it access to a borough owned road allowing the club to do maintenance a couple times a year on its own property; and
\n\u2022tabled a final payment request from Krieger Contracting regarding the in-line hockey rink pending a request from the borough to have a paint problem corrected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There may be a change in the fire ranks of the Tyrone Borough Council. Last month, council accepted the resignation of Fire Chief Jim Beckwith. He had served in the position for 28 years and until the closure of the Citizen\u2019s Fire Company was in charge of three companies constituting the department. Now, the idea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}