Firefighting concerns come before board

New equipment and repair issues both brought to township’s attention By Jerry Goldberg DINGMAN — Township Fire Chief Bill Mikulak’s report covered maintenance, communication and tragedy Tuesday. With the soon to be installed 911 automatic emergency call answering system Mikulak was concerned other municipality’s fire departments will have to come up to speed. “In order for everyone to be on the same page we’ll need to have a meeting with all of them and explain the necessity of the system,” said Mikulak. Dingman Supervisors Chairman Tom Mincer replied, “Maybe we ought to host a meeting with all of them and a discussion of like issues can be undertaken.” The EMS team had to answer 46 calls this past month. “There was a fatal vehicle accident recently where the driver was thrown about 35 feet from his car. He was alive when we got there but he died shortly afterwards. He had his seat belt on and all the air bags deployed and it seems like the vehicle just gave out. He should have been safe but it didn’t end like that,” Mikulak reported. He also told the township supervisors at the meeting that the high pressure water pump on their brush fire truck has failed and needs to be replaced. The truck is 20 years old, with 85,000 miles on it. The pump itself will cost $8,500 with a complete replacement of the water storage tank and other associated parts will cost an additional $5,000. “The governor has signed a bill providing tax relief for volunteer fire personnel. It may only be a couple of hundred bucks but it helps,” said Mikulak. Separately, Town Roadmaster Jim Snyder reported, “The new truck we are purchasing went up $1,500 in price to $79,819 and we won’t even get it for maybe three and a half months.” The truck will also need to be custom outfitted at an additional cost of $49, 900. Snyder reported the township has 750 tons of winter anti-skid and 370 tons of winter salt stockpiled for the winter. In other business, Rock Hill Estates, a 199 home sub-division on state Route 739, was expected to have a completed conditional use application plan ready for approval but asked for another extension until Nov. 18. The supervisors approved the extension. A smiling Township Sewage Enforcement Officer Chris Wood reported, “The sewage business is down the toilet this year.” He reported that new home construction has taken a down turn but home extensions as well as garages are on the rise. “We still have plenty of other work to keep us busy right now.”