Last night, a public information and consolidation progress meeting was held at the Columbia Borough High School auditorium. Approximately fifty people attended the meeting hosted by representatives of the three volunteer fire companies which provide fire protection for Columbia Borough. While the meeting is the first of several that will provide information for citizens, the majority of last night’s attendees were members of the fire departments, elected officials and borough employees.

The meeting, which began at 7:00 pm, consisted of a PowerPoint presentation that introduced the agenda for the meeting. Following the introduction of the members of the consolidation team, representatives for each of the fire departments –  Scott Ryno of Columbia No. 1; Jim Ciccocioppi of Columbia Consolidated and Jay Barninger of Susquehanna Fire & Rescue – and Rob Brady, a local government policy specialist with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development shared program topics for the audience. Theo Robinson, a planner with the Lancaster County Planning Commission, also explained his role as a facilitator.

“times have changed”

In his opening comments, Brady stressed that the “times have changed,” and the impetus for consolidation initiatives stems from national patterns of declining membership in fir departments; the need to conserve and get the most out of diminishing financial resources and to enhance the professional certification of community fire protection resources.

The idea of consolidation of fire resources, including the incorporation of the Columbia Fire Police, began in October, 2008. Since then the consolidation concept team has been meeting monthly to identify and iron out the issues and idiosyncracies of blending several separate entities into one. The Borough of Columbia has underwritten the cost of an outside consultancy to assess current and future needs and capabilities and to provide recommendations for the consolidation initiative.   The consulting professional, Dr. William Jenaway, representing VFIS, is an accomplished public safety expert and has significant skills in resource consolidation planning.

The result of Dr. Jenaway’s community assessment and investigation will be produced in a report to the Borough sometime during July. The consolidation team will use findings from the report as they continue to work out consolidation planning. The target for the initial consolidation is January 1, 2012.  Dr. Jenaway also provided consolidation consultation for the recent (and neighboring) Blue Rock Fire District; this involved the consolidation of fire resources for four separate departments in four separate jurisdictions.

Individually, Ryno, Barninger and Ciccocioppi introduced progress reports for the lengthy spate of issues that have been surfaced in the consolidation process. Operationally, the topics included:

• Fire leadership organization (at this point, the organization chart lists one fire chief; one deputy fire chief; three assistant fire chiefs; one captain and four lieutenants)
• Job descriptions
• Department identifications
• Training standards
• Standard Operating Guides
• Box Alarms

 Administratively, the topics presented included:

• Constitution and Bylaws
• Membership
• Professional services
• Financial disclosure
• Fund raising
• Fireman’s Relief
• Social Club

Informational meetings are for all Columbia citizens

Following the presentation of topics, Brady fielded questions and comments from the people in attendance. This was the first of many planned consolidation initiative meetings for the public; dates, times and venues for upcoming informational meetings will be announced.