The Citizens Volunteer Fire Company in Tyrone is scheduled to celebrate its 122nd anniversary of service to the Tyrone community on April 22. The odds the fire company will exist on that day are very slim.
\n\u201cThere is a very good possibility that we will be closing,\u201d said Citizens Assistant Fire Chief Mike Beckwith. \u201cFinancially, we just can\u2019t make it.\u201d
\nThe root of the financial problem is the social hall that opened in 1995.
\n\u201cWhen we were looking at building the social hall, we were told that it would be filled with wedding receptions, we had senior services as a consistant renter, but that has gone away,\u201d said Beckwith. \u201cThe cost of that building alone is $2,000 per month, plus it costs another $2,000 to $4,000 per month to maintain both buildings and the fire equipment.\u201d
\nThe fire company started taking a good look at its finances when there was some money stolen.
\n\u201cThat money has been paid back in full and that person\u2019s membership has been terminated,\u201d said Beckwith. \u201cWe didn\u2019t feel the need to press criminal charges.\u201d
\nAs a way to try to make its payments, Citizens has held youth dances at the social hall, hoagie sales and sold Christmas trees during the holiday period.
\n\u201cDances and hoagie sales won\u2019t make you $6,000 per month,\u201d said Beckwith. \u201cWhen we built the social hall, the cost was $364,000. Here it is eight years later and we still owe $316,000. It is like we haven\u2019t been making any progress.\u201d
\nThe financing for the building is through Reliance Bank.
\n\u201cThe bank has been very good to us,\u201d said Beckwith. \u201cWe are in the process of talking to them about the possibility of selling off some fire equipment to companies who could use what we have. This would help the other companies and also help the bank as well.\u201d
\nThis isn\u2019t a new problem to the firefighters at the Citizens.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve known for about three years that this building is killing us,\u201d said Beckwith. \u201cWe used to have an income from Blair Senior Services until they built their own senior center. We can\u2019t compete with the bingo games that happen in Altoona with their big jackpots. We are volunteers and we have a never say die attitude. That is part of why we are where we are. We kept thinking, maybe this year we will be OK and hold on for another year.\u201d
\nThe Citizens have been offered help from other fire companies.
\n\u201cWe have had offers of help from Bald Eagle and Lakemont,\u201d said Beckwith. \u201cIt isn\u2019t fair to jeopardize them to temporarily dig out of the hole.\u201d
\nThe Citizens had a peak of active members in the mid-1980s of about 30, to now where there are 12 members responding to emergency calls.
\n\u201cIt is very tough to get things done when you have 12 members,\u201d said Beckwith. \u201cGetting fire training, responding to emergencies and trying to raise money to keep the company afloat is next to impossible. When you are dealing with volunteers, you have to look at people who have to work, who want to spend time with their families. It just makes it very tough to survive.\u201d
\nShould the Citizens close it doors, what would the firemen do?
\n\u201cIn my case, I have been a member here for 22 years,\u201d said Beckwith. \u201cIf our guys want to continue their service, there should be no problem hooking up with either the Hookies or Neptunes. It shouldn\u2019t be too bad blending into other companies.\u201d
\nThe company has had offers to help, but it hasn\u2019t been enough to survive.
\n\u201cThe community has always supported us,\u201d said Beckwith. \u201cWe have always been thankful for the amount of community support we have received.\u201d
\nThe Daily Herald asked Beckwith if losing the Citizens would affect fire service in Tyrone?
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think it will hurt the coverage in Tyrone,\u201d said Beckwith. \u201cOne of the companies will have to take over the rescue that the Citizens\u2019 handle. For a town the size of ours, three companies is plenty of service, but two will serve the needs just fine.\u201d
\nFor almost 122 years, a constant in Tyrone was that if there was an emergency, you would see the Citizens Volunteer Company responding to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Citizens Volunteer Fire Company in Tyrone is scheduled to celebrate its 122nd anniversary of service to the Tyrone community on April 22. The odds the fire company will exist on that day are very slim. \u201cThere is a very good possibility that we will be closing,\u201d said Citizens Assistant Fire Chief Mike Beckwith. \u201cFinancially, […]<\/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-47110","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\/47110","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=47110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}