Callery fire company asks for additional funding, 3-year contract from borough
CALLERY — The crisis in emergency services funding is not limited to EMS, as the Callery Volunteer Fire Company emphasized during a borough council meeting Tuesday night, Sept. 8.
At the meeting, fire company President Chris Augustine formally proposed the borough agree to a three-year service contract with set terms for average annual financial contributions per household. If an agreement is reached by the end of 2026, the contract would take effect on New Year’s Day 2027 and run for three years with automatic renewal “unless terminated with 90 days written notice.”
According to Augustine, if no agreement is reached by the end of 2026, service could be terminated within 90 days.
According to longtime member of council Rose Marie Wirtz, the fire company currently doesn’t, and has not to her knowledge, operated under a formal contract with the borough.
“To the best of my knowledge, we've never been approached by the fire company to sign any sort of service contract,” Wirtz said. “This is the first time, and that's why we're going to look this over.”
Under the terms of the proposed contract, the borough would provide the fire department with $36.90 per household in 2027, followed by $38.75 per household the following year and $40.68 per household the year after. With 175 households in Callery, those totals are estimated at $6,457.50, $6,781.25 and $7,119, respectively.
“We have cut our (the department’s) budget multiple times over the years,” said Randy Hoffman, who is both a council member and assistant chief of the fire department. “As we cut our budget, the cost of diesel fuel is going up. The cost of fire gear goes up. The cost of all of our equipment goes up. Our fire truck has to get yearly maintenance.”
During the meeting, Hoffman stated the fire department has little ability to raise funds on its own during the year. This is in contrast to other volunteer fire departments, such as Saxonburg and Connoquenessing, which hold fundraising community events throughout the year.
“Saxonburg has a very large department that is able to run these fundraisers, so it's not taking time away from firefighters doing training and running calls.” Hoffman said. “They bring in a large amount of money, but they have to put a large amount of money up front to bring in money.”
In addition, Hoffman said that unlike Saxonburg, Connoquenessing and other fire departments in Butler County, Callery does not hold online raffles to raise money because it does not want to risk running afoul of Pennsylvania’s “Small Games of Chance” law.
During the meeting, Mayor Allan Wirtz repeatedly told Hoffman the borough’s budget was already stretched and had little to spare for the fire department.
In addition to Callery, the fire department also serves a small portion of Adams Township. During the meeting, Hoffman said the township donated $215,000 to the fire department in 2025 — an average of $39.60 for each of the 5,800 Adams Township homes in the department’s coverage area. The requests for funding in the proposed contract would bring Callery’s contributions in line with Adams Township’s contributions.
However, Wirtz noted Adams Township’s donations to the department were more than Callery’s entire operating budget for 2026, which is just over $200,000.
“You’ve got to keep in mind, this is Callery Borough,” Mayor Wirtz said. “This is not Adams Township. This is not Cranberry Township. This is Callery Borough. ...We give you as much as we can give you. You’ve got more than we do, and we’ve got to run the whole (expletive) borough. It takes a lot of money for us to do what we need to do. What do you expect us to do?”
During the meeting, both Augustine and Hoffman said the department would rather not have the borough implement a separate fire tax — something that it does not currently levy but is permitted to under state law.
“We do not want a fire tax,” Augustine said. “We believe that you can fund this slight increase in your budget without having to rely on the taxpayers.”
“The people in this borough are already taxed extremely high,” Hoffman said. “Most of the population is elderly people who live on Social Security and who have a set income every year and you're going to tax them even more because you can't find $3,000 in a budget of $200,000.”
No decision was taken during Tuesday’s meeting on whether or not the borough would agree to the contract as written. Hoffman said most of the numbers in the contract were not written in stone and could be changed.
Rose Marie Wirtz said the borough will use the next month, at least, to look over the contract and come to a decision on how to fund the fire department. She said the contract will be discussed at the next borough council meeting on Monday, Oct. 5.
“We’ve got September to study it and October to discuss it; and please, I’m asking everyone to please read this closely,” Mayor Wirtz said to the rest of the council. “Let’s look at this and be able to have a solid discussion at our October meeting.”
