Newtown Borough Asks Township To Reconsider 'Good Faith' Fire Services Offer

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — Newtown Borough will again ask Newtown Township to consider accepting its "good faith" offer of $275,000 for a one-year fire protection agreement with the township.

The township is currently asking the borough to pay the township $350,000 for fire services next year, while the borough has offered $275,000.

On Wednesday night, the council called the township’s latest offer “not the good faith” number agreed to by the parties during negotiations.

Council directed its solicitor to reply to the township with its negotiated offer of $275,000, which they say is what the negotiating teams had agreed to in good faith.

“We had good faith negotiations to arrive at this number and this number is the threshold which was verbally agreed to by their negotiators,” said Councilor Josh Philips. “In good faith, we should take this number back and stick to it.”

Added Councilor Kris Bauman, “We don’t think the $350,000 is an appropriate or a reasonable number. We do think the $275,000 is. And I believe we have some basis for that.”

Bauman asked the borough solicitor, “Do we anticipate that number will get fair consideration?”

“It is possible. I don’t know if I can give you any more than that,” responded Greg Heleniak.

At a meeting in November, three of the township supervisors voted in favor of the higher number over the objections of the board’s negotiating team members - supervisors Elen Snyder and Dennis Fisher - who had reached a negotiated number with the borough.

Not happy with the number and the negotiations with the borough, supervisors Phil Calabro, John Mack and Kyle Davis voted to direct its solicitor to send the borough a one-year offer of $350,000, which is $75,000 more than what the board had agreed to just three weeks earlier by consensus.

Supervisors Elen Snyder and Dennis Fisher, who had been hammering out a number with the borough as members of the township’s negotiating team, supported $275,000, the number agreed to by both parties during the negotiations.

“I’m sticking with $275,000 even though that is a very low number. But I made a promise and I’m going to stick to that promise,” said Snyder. “But I made it clear that in the coming years it’s going to rise drastically,” she said of the borough’s cost for fire services.

Calabro accused Snyder of supporting the borough at the expense of township taxpayers.

He also accused Snyder of “dropping the ball. You’re catering to the borough when it’s the people of the township who pay for us to be up here, not the borough.”