Due to the lack of volunteer firefighters across upstate New York, some municipalities are finding other solutions.

What You Need To Know

  • April is Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment Month

  • With low volunteer numbers, fire departments are looking at ways to consolidate services

  • Two departments in the town of Hanover in Chautauqua County have agreed to form a fire district

A trend gaining ground on the local level is to consolidate services.

In the town of Hanover in Chautauqua County, two of its five departments, Silver Creek and Sunset Bay, have agreed to form a joint fire district, part of the town's plan to get all five of its departments and 7,000 residents under one taxing district.

"We would even out all the money so everybody would pay the same. We could standardize our equipment," said Louis Pelletter, Hanover town supervisor. "It would also be very welcoming to have standardized procedures, so when you go into a fire you all have the same basic procedures."

The other three departments, Irving, Hanover Center and Forestville, have yet to agree to the plan.

Forestville, an already established fire district that serves outside communities, would have to dissolve, and says it doesn't make sense to do that, but would rather expand its existing footprint.

"I don't have a problem with fire departments merging together," said Mark Woolley, chairmam of the Board of Fire Commissioners, Forestville Fire District. "I think we can be a lot more cost effective and better serve our communities and the residents that we currently do."

The town has hired an attorney, Bradley Pinsky, of Pinsky Law Group in Syracuse, with decades of fire service experience to form the district between Silver Creek and Sunset Bay.

"The goal of consolidation is not usually to save money, it's to be able to be more efficient, to have one set of policies, one chief, one training officer, one governing board where one board can make decisions that affect a greater number of people," said Pinsky.

He says that board would solely handle the departments within that district.

"Nobody's losing their identity," said Pinsky. "We're not going to get rid of these very proud traditions in the fire service."

Like in Hanover, where Pelletter hopes he can get the other departments to eventually join the district and be proactive in solving the issues rural fire communities face.

"The costs are going up, the volunteers are going down," said Pelletter. "If you're allowed to keep your equipment, what's the problem? We're not consolidating fire departments, we're consolidating how we pay into one taxing district and that's it."

Once all the details are ironed out, the new district could be in place by July 1.