The tailspin of the Citizens Fire Company came to an abrupt end last evening when council was formally notified by Tyrone Fire Department Chief Jim Beckwith that all operations of the 122-year-old company will cease.
“They are definitely out-of-business,” said Beckwith.
The decision to suspend operation comes on the heels of a myriad of problems with the company, most notably financial difficulty and lack of leadership.
Recently, council notified the company to cease holding controversial youth dances at the Citizens Social Hall on Friday nights or tax-payer funding would be cut-off. In Tyrone Borough Police Chief Joe Beachem’s report to council, he called the dances a “haven for trouble” and said since October, there have been 52 “direct” complaints about activities associated with the dance.
On top of this, three company leaders announced last week that they were resigning from the company; Chief and President Dave Lynch, Assistant Chief Mike Beckwith and Treasurer Amanda Snyder.
“We’re not jeopardizing the safety of the community with this suspension,” said Beckwith. “We have other engines in the borough (at Hookies and Neptune) and Hookies will be making all the rescue calls. Until these guys can get their act together, they will no longer be operating in the area.”
The borough’s solicitor, Larry Clapper, informed council it was now able to pull fire company funding because Citizens didn’t heed warning to stop holding the dances. A dance was held Friday, but acting company chief Chris Hammond said the building was leased to Travis Hammond and not for Citizens Fire Company use.
Clapper said the intent of Friday’s dance was the same, and informed council that a formal letter would be drafted notifying the company of the termination of funding.
More than a month ago, Beachem served the company with notice to get things under control at the dances or they would be canceled. Then two weeks ago, the police department said the situation at the dances hadn’t changed and served notice to cancel all dances or funding would be pulled.
“We’re not trying to stop the kids from having fun around here. We just need to protect them and the rest of the community,” said Beachem. “The atmosphere down there and the lack of control has caused a lot of these problems.”
Beachum said in the past seven months, there have been seven assaults, nine underage drinking violations, 15 disorderly conduct incidents and 21 other calls, which included things such as curfew and loitering violations. He said they all were directly related to the dances at the social hall.
“And that doesn’t even show all the other problems that go along with it,” said Beachum. “After the dances are over, criminal activity in Tyrone increases.”
Hammond explained to Beachem that in the past month, changes have been made at the dances. He said they no longer allowed kids to leave the social hall and return or carry containers into the dances. He also said members of the fire company would patrol the property outside the doors of the social hall.
“We also call the police for any incidents that arise,” said Hammond.
Beachem explained that fire company members calling the police for unruly activity is not enough to curb the problem at the dances.
Dave Gill, a resident of State College, grew up in Tyrone and still visits his mother regularly on Ninth Street. He explained to council that three dances a week were held in Tyrone when he was a kid, and he didn’t want to see the kids with nothing to do now.
“I’m really concerned about the youth here in Tyrone,” said Gill to Beachem. “What can we do about this?”
Beachem explained the Tyrone Police Department does not have the funding to provide police coverage at the dance, and Beckwith added that if council would assign police to that section of town for a period of time on Friday evening, other taxpayers of the borough would be without protection during those times.
“We just don’t have the money in our budget to do that,” said Beckwith. “It should be the responsibility of the people holding the dance to make sure there is no trouble there.”
Hammond told The Herald that he and representatives of the company attended last evening’s meeting to ask the borough for another chance.
“We know things haven’t been that good, but we’ve been getting things in order,” said Hammond, who also provided the musical entertainment at the dances. “We’ve put those new rules in and were hoping the council would see what we’re trying to do. I guess they didn’t want to see it like we do.”
There has been no early indication what will happen with Citizens Fire Company or its social hall.
