BELLEVUE BOROUGH, Pa. — Tense moments played out Tuesday night in the Bellevue municipal building as community members and borough leaders clashed over the decision to decertify the community’s volunteer fire department.
The vote took place one week ago, but for many, emotions are still running high.
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Tuesday was the first public meeting since the decertification vote last week, and community members came out in full force to express their frustrations with the borough council’s decision.
“This whole situation, the way it was handled, is absolutely asinine,” said resident Juliana Ire.
“You work for all of us. Now you’re hearing from all of us and no one’s happy,” resident Karen McCreery said.
Among the frustrated speakers was Councilwoman Sabreena Miller.
“This was an intentional act to showboat power. And it was an abuse, whether the process was done legally or not,” Miller said.
Miller says she was not informed of the plans to decertify the Columbia Hose, Hook and Ladder Company prior to last week’s council meeting — and the community was not allowed to weigh in prior to the vote.
“The residents had every right to have some sort of public engagement piece. You pulled a stunt because this is something that you had in the works for quite some time,” she said.
The council cited a study alleging performance issues from the volunteer firefighters.
But their chief begs to differ.
“If it was a performance issue, I would’ve bowed out gracefully and said, ‘You know what, we’re not providing the job that we swore to do, and it’s time somebody steps up and takes over for us.’ But that’s not the case,” said Chief Glenn Pritchard.
The borough says it is reimagining its current fire department plans, but in the meantime, Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire will be assisting the small number of paid firefighters in Bellevue.
“People are going to die and it can’t happen,” Pritchard said. “We’re going to have to sit by idly and watch it happen, and I hope and pray that somebody doesn’t have to die before they realize the mistake and try to make corrective action on it.”
The mayor of Bellevue did not want to talk on camera, but told 11 News despite the public’s frustration, “Our position is strong,” referring to the borough’s future plans for emergency services.
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