PA Township Won't Reopen Fire Company in Wake of Audit

PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, PA—A Plymouth Township supervisor said she was unable to comment about a recent audit from the Auditor General’s office on the Tilbury Fire Company Relief Association, but one thing is clear: the fire company will not be returning to service.

Meanwhile, the fire company’s chief said late Thursday evening that the problem was due to a clerical error, and is already on its way to being resolved.

Both township supervisor Gale Conrad and Chief Barry Lore spoke Thursday afternoon, the day after the audit from the auditor general’s office was made public.

That audit, released on Wednesday, suggests that over a two-year period, including all of 2017 and 2018, “the relief association did not, in all significant respects, comply with applicable state laws, contracts, bylaws and administrative procedures as they relate to the receipt of state aid and the expenditure of relief association funds.”

The audit found that the group inappropriately disbursed $28,500 to the fire company for miscellaneous expenditures and that the association failed to keep adequate minutes of their meetings.

According to Lore, the issues in the audit were caused by an error with paperwork, and the department not realizing that the sale of a fire truck would not make good on the loan.

Lore said the fire department had an emergency meeting Thursday night, and that the department had been in contact with the auditor general’s office on Thursday to rectify the issue.

“We will make 100% restitution on the loan tomorrow morning,” Lore said. “We’re going to send the cash to make that happen.”

Lore said the fire company has the funds to do this, despite the fact that it will likely cause further financial hardship. Lore emphasized, though, that he claims there was no misappropriation of funds.

Plymouth Township originally planned on having a press conference in response to the report, but it was canceled Thursday evening. Conrad told a reporter that the township did not have much else to add to it.

But she did make one thing clear: the Tilbury Fire Company, which was decertified in August 2019, will not be allowed to begin responding to calls in the township again.

“We made it very clear that this is not being reversed,” Conrad said, referring to a Monday evening township meeting.

“We sit solid with the decision,” she said.

Conrad offered no specific comments in regard to the auditor general’s office’s claims.

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