OIL CITY, Pa. — The Oil City Council is contemplating whether or not it will have the city’s fire department assist Titusville when the latter needs an aerial truck to fight certain fires.

(Photo of Tower 14. Photo courtesy of Oil City)

Oil City Fire Chief Mark Hicks said he received notification from Titusville Fire Chief Joe Lamey stating that Titusville’s aerial device has been put out of service. When Lamey brought options to the Titusville city manager and council, he was told that the budget wasn’t able to support a new or used aerial device and that he should utilize Oil City or Corry, if the need arose.

Hicks and Oil City manager Mark Schroyer believe that if Oil City’s apparatus would be used in Titusville that Titusville should have to pay for that service.

“We currently don’t have a mutual-aid agreement with Titusville,” Schroyer said. “We don’t have a problem helping out our neighbors, but when the backup plan is to just call Oil City, we are not going to put up with that.”

Hicks said he believes the city manager in Titusville doesn’t understand what mutual aid means.

“It’s not mutual aid if we aren’t getting something of equal or greater value in return,” Hicks said. “We have never, in my time, had to have an engine come down from Titusville.”

Hicks put together a couple of different proposals for the Oil City Council to look at in terms of what the city could charge Titusville for providing services.

One plan Hicks presented was using a cost-guide he found through FEMA that would call for Titusville to pay $141 per hour to Oil City’s Tower 14 (the Oil City aerial unit) beginning at the time of dispatch until Tower 14 returns to the station.

In addition to that $141 per hour for Tower 14, it would also cost Titusville $240 for a three-man crew for the first two hours and $120 for the crew for each additional hour past two hours that the Oil City unit and crew remains on scene.

Hicks also presented the council with a proposal drawn up by the city’s third-party billing service that would have the same manpower charges but would bill Titusville $400 per hour for the use of Tower 14.

Hicks noted that he likes using the third-party service because they would bill Titusville directly; although, he did note that the service usually takes a 15 percent fee.

Schroyer said Oil City is not obligated to provide services for outlying communities.

“We pay approximately $2 million a year for our fire service,” Schroyer said. “Oil City citizens are paying for it. We are obligated to provide service for them, not Titusville.”

Both Schroyer and Hicks said they have yet to receive a formal request from Titusville for the use of Oil City’s Tower 14, and that Hicks is receiving his information second-hand from Lamey.

Councilman Dale Massie suggested that Oil City wait until it gets a formal request from Titusville before acting on any pricing structure.

“Without a formal request (the Titusville City Manager) could just say that he never said any of this,” Massie said.

Schroyer said that Oil City mayor Bill Moon has a good relationship with Titusville mayor Esther Smith and that he should reach out to her to see what is going on. Moon agreed and will be reaching out to Smith.

COUNCIL DECIDES ON CDBG GRANT EXPENDITURES

The council also decided upon what the expenditures in the 2018 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) application should look like.

After hearing from Kelly Amos, the city’s Director of Community Development, last meeting about proposals during a public hearing, they heard from Amos that one of the paving projects that had been suggested on Orange Street, couldn’t be completed with CDBG money because that street doesn’t qualify as Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) per CDBG guidelines with only 43.1 percent of the street falling into LMI with a minimum of 51 percent LMI needed. So Amos suggested moving the monies to Warren Street, which has a 64.25 percent LMI and Chestnut Street, which has an 84.21 percent LMI.

In addition, the council decided that instead of using CDBG money to fix the drainage issue in Justus Park they would use the money to fix the sidewalks around the Town Square.

Schroyer said while he believes Justus Park would be a good use of CDBG money, he was concerned that since he took over as City Manager that CDBG money was earmarked for infrastructure improvements and he would like to keep it that way.

While the council agreed, they also agree something needs to be done about the drainage issue in Justus Park, and Councilman Michael Poff suggested that a solution be part of the 2019 budget and that the city might be able to secure other grants to help fund that project.

Because of the changes in both the streets and the use of the remaining $39,000 and change from the drainage project to the sidewalk project, another public hearing on the matter needs to be held at 4 p.m. Oct. 11, 2018, prior to the regular council meeting.

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business the council: