Dauphin County, PA, Fire Service Fee Dispute Heating up

A financial dispute over fire department services is heating up in Dauphin County after Middletown asked for more money from its neighbor Royalton, a borough that has used Middletown’s firefighting services for years while paying a fraction of the cost.

It all started when Middletown’s Borough Council sent a letter to the Royalton Borough Authority in September, noting Royalton residents account for about 11% of the population served by the Middletown Volunteer Fire Department. Royalton, however, has been contributing about 4% of the fire department’s total funding each year.

The Middletown Volunteer Fire Department is responsible for about 10,600 residents and their properties between the two boroughs. Middletown had about 9,500 residents and Royalton 1,100 residents in the 2020 U.S. Census count.

Although the firefighters are volunteers, the department still has costs, and those costs are rising.

The fire department’s costs for this year were estimated at $192,700 for operating and maintenance expenses, such as the costs that come with taking care of fire trucks, gear and hydrants, and $48,000 for fire truck leases, for a total of $240,700.

For decades, Middletown residents have paid for the bulk of the department’s costs, while Royalton contributed a flat $6,000 per year.

With funding recently approved to put a new roof on the fire department’s Adelia Street building, Middletown officials said they had to ask Royalton to pay their share. Otherwise, Middletown residents would essentially be subsidizing Royalton residents, Middletown Council President Ian Reddinger said.

Middletown asked Royalton for $26,477 this year, which represents 11% of the fire department’s expected budget, to match its population. The request included a 3% annual increase starting in 2025 to keep up with inflation and costs.

That letter triggered a volley of written exchanges.

Royalton Borough Council wrote back that they couldn’t immediately pay an additional $20K this year. The requested $26,477 would work out to an additional $23.35 per year per resident. Royalton said the steep increase didn’t come with enough notice or details.

“It would not be fiscally responsible to enact an increase on our residents without documentation showing why the increase may be merited,” Royalton officials wrote.

Royalton also asked for detailed statistics regarding how many fire calls the Middletown Volunteer Fire Department responded to in Royalton in 2022 and 2023.

The next correspondence from Middletown, on Dec. 11, 2023, said: “Middletown Borough Council finds Royalton’s refusal to make any increase in its contribution towards the fire protection to be unacceptable and an insult to the residents of Middletown Borough who, as you know, have been heavily subsidizing for decades the fire protection enjoyed by the residents of Royalton Borough.”

The Middletown Borough Council noted that Paxtang, another borough in Dauphin County with a similar population to Royalton, pays Swatara Township – which has 24,900 residents – $25,000 annually while representing 6.6% of the Swatara Township Fire Department’s coverage area.

Middletown also called Royalton’s request for fire response statistics “offensive and nonsensical.”

Additionally, the Middletown council noted a fatal January 2022 fire in Royalton that trapped and seriously injured a Middletown volunteer firefighter, who spent months in hospitals and rehab.

At the end of their Dec. 11 letter, the Middletown Borough Council said they would prefer if Royalton agreed to their requested terms, but would also respectfully allow Royalton to seek other sources for primary fire protection and “terminate any intergovernmental cooperative arrangement[s].”

The Royalton Borough Authority then requested an in-person meeting for both boroughs’ leadership in late December 2023. The Middletown Borough Council responded to the invitation saying they “do not feel that there would be anything to be gained from an in-person meeting at this time.”

Last month, Royalton’s Borough Authority proposed a gradual increase in payments, in which the borough would pay $13,225 – half of the requested amount – in 2024, $19,260 in 2025, and the full $26,477 in 2026.

The boroughs’ officials are scheduled to meet on April 8 at 7 p.m. in Middletown to discuss Royalton’s latest proposal. But Middletown’s council president said he would be reluctant to accept less from Royalton than the per-capita amount that Middletown residents pay.

“Within the current agreement, Middletown is Royalton’s primary fire service. Royalton is receiving the same level of service, but not paying their fair share. Although their offer was very generous, I am not going to accept that they are not paying the same per-capita amount as Middletown,” Reddinger said.

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