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A local volunteer fire company’s plan to generate funds through a municipal vehicle repair business has been doused.
“We have shut that down,” Richland Fire Department President Wes Myers said of the Municipal Equipment Repairs garage at John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport.
“It really was not doing what we expected.”
Fire company leaders launched the business in April 2010 as a way to fund a training facility now under development on property off Eisenhower Boulevard.
Mechanics at the airport location specialized in fire equipment and municipal vehicles, such as snowplows, salt spreaders and street sweepers.
A separate organization, East Hills Emergency Services Training Association, was formed to operate the business and develop the training facility, located near the former 84 Lumber property.
Plans for the training facility remain on track, if slowed considerably by the lack of a funding stream, Myers said.
“We had some work done (at the site),” Myers said. “We have the roadway put in. It is just what we can afford.”
Municipal Equipment Repairs’ inability to do warranty service hampered the business, said Robert Heffelfinger Jr., fire company board member and Richland Township supervisor.
“We anticipated that we were just going to hit it out of the ball park with a specialty mechanic business,” Heffelfinger said. “But most municipalities have warranties on their trucks. They weren’t going to bring them to us.”
The business was already floundering when both its mechanics found other jobs and moved on, Myers noted.
Municipal Equipment Repairs, through the fire company, leased a large hangar building at the airport at a reduced rental rate. In exchange for the cheaper rent, fire company leaders agreed to complete major renovations the building needed. About $25,000 in work has been completed, acting airport manager RaNell Fenchak told the airport authority last week.
When Fenchak told the board that the business had shut down, there was some discussion about the potential loss of rental income from another vacant building. A Cambria County agency inquired about using the building for storage, Fenchak added.
But fire company leaders say they will not renege on the lease.
“We are using that facility as a training location,” Heffelfinger said. “We have no intention of breaking the lease with the airport.”
Airport authority Solicitor Timothy Leventry confirmed that the fire company notified the airport that it is still interested in the space.
The authority has been pushing to get only aviation-related operations into its hangars, and the fire company’s lease includes provisions to terminate if there is an interested business that qualifies, Leventry said.
“We are exploring other options,” Leventry said. “If something comes up that benefits the airport, we will try to do a deal.”
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