MARSH CREEK — Curtin Township supervisors are weighing a proposal offered by the Howard Fire Company of opening a substation at the Curtin Township complex. The supervisors would like to see township residents attend the monthly supervisors meetings to learn more about this proposal and then voice their support of or their opposition to the proposal.

According to supervisor Jeff Harter, for months Howard Fire Company officers have attended the township meetings and have brought the proposal of the substation to the township leaders for consideration.

Although the township building does have an unfinished truck bay that could be adapted to house a fire fighting piece of equipment, the proposal comes with a price tag for the township.

“The truck bay space would need to undergo major renovations before we could begin to think about housing a fire fighting piece of equipment and operating as a fire company substation,” Harter said.

Those renovations include having a concrete floor poured in the truck bay, running electrical wiring, installing lighting fixtures, insulating the building better and adding heating mechanicals to keep the inside temperature around 40 degrees during the winter months.

Although township officials haven’t asked contractors for bids yet, Harter believes the renovation work alone could possibly reach the $40-$50,000 mark even if some of the work was done by township employees or volunteers — money the township does not have in its operating budget.

“Over the last year we had to raise taxes in the township, and the other supervisors (Rick Miller and Joe Moore, Jr.) and myself are hoping not to put another tax hike on our township residents right now,” Harter said.

Another dilemma with the substation proposal is having volunteers to respond from the substation to emergency calls in our area of the township. Those individuals would be required to become fire company members and undergo the classroom instruction, training and certifications that are required to be efficient first responders.

“It’s a big commitment. I know it takes a lot of classroom instruction time, training hours and skills that are needed to be a fire company member,” Harter said.

Over the past few years several Amish families have settled in the Marsh Creek and Romola areas of the township, located about six miles west from the town of Howard. Several of our Amish neighbors have expressed an interest in becoming active members of the Howard Fire Company, but transportation is their problem.

“They don’t drive vehicles so drivers would need to help in getting volunteers to the fire station in Howard or to the substation, as well as to the emergency scenes. These drivers would need to meet the fire company’s expectations as members as well,” said Harter.

Howard Fire Company is the primary responding fire company to the Marsh Creek, Romola and Orviston Mountain areas of Curtin Township, while the Beech Creek-Blanchard Fire Company responds to the community of Orviston.

“As supervisors, we’re responsible for providing emergency services protection to our township residents, and we do this by contractual agreements and annual payments made to both of the local fire departments,” Harter said.

In addition to donations made directly to each of the fire companies, the township also contributes to paying a portion of the workers compensation premiums for the first responder volunteers of both fire departments.

“Our township employees (and us supervisors) could assist as drivers, but there’s a fine line between whether those employees would be considered township employees or fire company volunteers if they were hurt during an incident. We’re having our solicitor check on some of the ramifications that might come about if we were to decide to go the route of having a fire company substation here in Curtin Township,” Harter said.

“We want our township residents to have a voice in whether they would like to see a substation here at the Curtin Township building. Right now this is all just in the discussion stages and it could take months, possibly even a few years, for a substation to become a reality if we decided to go that route,” Harter said.

Residents are encouraged to attend the supervisors meetings to stay abreast of the proposed substation in Curtin Township. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 6, at 6:30 p.m.

Residents should also feel free to reach out to any of the township supervisors for information as well.