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.
“There is a very good possibility that we will be closing,” said Citizens Assistant Fire Chief Mike Beckwith. “Financially, we just can’t make it.”
The root of the financial problem is the social hall that opened in 1995.
“When 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,” said Beckwith. “The 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.”
The fire company started taking a good look at its finances when there was some money stolen.
“That money has been paid back in full and that person’s membership has been terminated,” said Beckwith. “We didn’t feel the need to press criminal charges.”
As 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.
“Dances and hoagie sales won’t make you $6,000 per month,” said Beckwith. “When 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’t been making any progress.”
The financing for the building is through Reliance Bank.
“The bank has been very good to us,” said Beckwith. “We 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.”
This isn’t a new problem to the firefighters at the Citizens.
“We’ve known for about three years that this building is killing us,” said Beckwith. “We used to have an income from Blair Senior Services until they built their own senior center. We can’t 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.”
The Citizens have been offered help from other fire companies.
“We have had offers of help from Bald Eagle and Lakemont,” said Beckwith. “It isn’t fair to jeopardize them to temporarily dig out of the hole.”
The 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.
“It is very tough to get things done when you have 12 members,” said Beckwith. “Getting 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.”
Should the Citizens close it doors, what would the firemen do?
“In my case, I have been a member here for 22 years,” said Beckwith. “If our guys want to continue their service, there should be no problem hooking up with either the Hookies or Neptunes. It shouldn’t be too bad blending into other companies.”
The company has had offers to help, but it hasn’t been enough to survive.
“The community has always supported us,” said Beckwith. “We have always been thankful for the amount of community support we have received.”
The Daily Herald asked Beckwith if losing the Citizens would affect fire service in Tyrone?
“I don’t think it will hurt the coverage in Tyrone,” said Beckwith. “One of the companies will have to take over the rescue that the Citizens’ handle. For a town the size of ours, three companies is plenty of service, but two will serve the needs just fine.”
For almost 122 years, a constant in Tyrone was that if there was an emergency, you would see the Citizens Volunteer Company responding to help.
