The Londonderry Fire Company remains a 100% volunteer fire company that is made up of citizens of Londonderry Township and surrounding communities. These individuals continue to train, fundraise and respond to incidents when called upon, no matter the day of the week or time of the day. They continue to serve our residents and those just passing through the area.
The Fire Company continues to have the good fortune of people like you, who realize the expenses involved in emergency services in our community. Maintaining training standards, state-of-the-art firefighting vehicles, rescue equipment, a community-based facility, and delivering programs that teach children about fire prevention can be extremely costly.
With the continued struggle of membership recruitment and retention the fire company continues to try and hold events to raise additional funds to cover the costs associated with operating the fire company daily. That being said we could not continue operations without community support. The Board of Directors continues to watch the state of the economy and understand the difficulties around financial needs to support your families. That is why we are, and always will, remain fiscally conservative/financially responsible with all our financial decisions. For those that support our fundraising efforts, we hope that you can continue to support those events, which continue to help us pay our bills.
So, what are some of those larger financial decisions that have been made to better community support. We are continuing to work with our neighbors to connect to public sewer and water. Sticking with some building improvements we are replacing all the apparatus bay lights with LEDs, and we are upgrading our audio-visual equipment for the social hall and the training room. We continue to have patience and await the replacement of Engine 54-1 that was ordered in 2022, with expected delivery in early 2026. Also, we will be moving forward with the refurbishment of Engine 54 in the coming months. As you can probably imagine, tax dollars do not cover all the cost of these projects or our reoccurring expenses. We can report that we have secured a $155,000.00 grant (For Engine 54-1) and a $150,000.00 grant (For Engine 54) from the Dauphin County Commissioners.
These are the reasons that we need your community support.
In conclusion, I would also like to encourage you to become a member. Our active membership continues to shrink. If we cannot get the community's help to volunteer, we will have to advise the Township Supervisors, who will then have to decide how to protect your property, which could be a substantial tax increase, which none of us would prefer. So PLEASE, if you can afford to volunteer some hours helping with fundraising, assisting with traffic control or even being an active firefighter, please let us know by emailing firechiefs@londonderryfire.com or calling 717-944-2175 (Option 1).