Newtown Borough Approves Fire Services Agreement With Township

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — The Newtown Borough Council at its April 8 meeting unanimously approved a new fire services intermunicipal cooperation agreement with the township.

Under the agreement, the borough will pay the township $275,000 for full-time fire protection services for 2026, including fire protection and inspections.

“We renegotiated the services provided by the township to the borough and we have gotten confirmation that is acceptable,” reported borough solicitor Greg Heleniak, who described the agreement as “fairly straight forward.”

Heleniak said the payment will provide the borough with “all the services it has enjoyed over the course of the previous agreement, but instead of any complicated formulas and machinations, it’s a straight forward payment and a one year agreement.”

The agreement will now be forwarded to the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors for final approval ending, for now, what had been a stalemate over the borough’s share of the fire services bill.

The borough has been without an agreement since the beginning of the year when the borough’s previous agreement with the township expired.

The borough and the township had been in negotiations since last year over the borough’s share of the fire services bill, which has escalated over the last several years as the township has transitioned from a non-paid volunteer force to a full-time, paid department.

Looking ahead, Heleniak said the borough is in conversations with the township to see what the next agreement will look like.

In March, supervisor Melissa Merk confirmed that the township and the borough had begun discussions and will be looking for an agreement that brings parity to the issue.

“Those discussions are progressing,” said Merk. “We heard the public and we understand the charge we have is to reach a fair share agreement with the borough. We can report that everyone is on board and that we all want a fair share agreement on the borough’s side and on the township’s side.”

Merk continued, “We agree that it doesn’t matter which side of the line you live on you should pay for fire services just as your neighbors do. We are working on that and it is moving forward. We will be meeting with them again to continue those discussions.”

Ed Merriman, who chairs the township’s board of supervisors, said everyone agrees “that we need parity” in any future agreement.

“There is some fine tuning to see what that looks like,” he said. “At some point, people are going to want to see some numbers. That’s where we are right now - just getting the numbers right.”