BY TED POTTS
CENTRAL CITY — With no agreement reached as of Saturday evening between Central City Volunteer Fire Department and the Shade Township supervisors in a dispute involving how much money the township will pay the volunteers for fire protection, the attorney representing the fire company said Central City would stop providing fire service in the township at midnight Saturday.
“Effective Sunday, Central City Fire Department will no longer provide fire services to the township,” the attorney, Jim Elder of Pittsburgh, said early Saturday evening.
Scott Bittner of Somerset, the township’s solicitor, said Friday that the supervisors had asked the Stoystown, Hooversville and Windber volunteer fire departments to service the township in the event Central City stopped providing service.
Dave Fox, Somerset County 911 coordinator, has said that if Central City would no longer provide service, Stoystown and Hooversville will be called first, with the Windber company as initial backup.
The Central City volunteers agreed to provide fire protection to the township for just over $17,000.
Elder has said the one-year deal agreed to in January also included Shade’s making a “substantial contribution toward capital equipment,” a promise he said has not been kept.
Because the capital equipment contribution remains in dispute, the firefighters have requested $26,840.
John Topka, supervisors chairman, said his board would never have agreed to the capital equipment wording.
Topka said he thought an agreement was in place between the township and the volunteers based on recommendations of a six-member panel appointed earlier in the year and made up of the supervisors and representatives of the fire department.
Then, Topka said, the capital equipment matter came up, which he said is something to which the supervisors would never agree.
“We’ve contacted 911 and have every confidence in them,” Topka said.
“We’re still open to negotiations,” he added.
