Tyrone Borough Council votes to end fire safety inspection program

TYRONE, Pa. (WTAJ)– The Tyrone Borough Council voted to not move forward with their fire safety inspection program at their monthly meeting on Monday, April 10.

At a 3-2 vote, the council voted to not move forward with the program. It was originally aimed at addressing some of the council’s concerns with commercial buildings downtown and whether they had the necessary fire prevention equipment.

Hookies and Neptune Volunteers Fire Departments were supposed to handle the inspections, but have since expressed that they do not have the time or manpower to do so.

“I don’t think that the fire department should be,” Council member Rob Poust said. “That shouldn’t be on your shoulders no matter what. Whether to move forward or not, I don’t think it should have ever been put on your shoulders to go into places to inspect.”

The council debated the idea of whether or not to hire an outside agency to move forward with the program or to hire a new employee to do so.

“With our tax base I’m sorry,” Council member Willaim Wiser said. “We just don’t have the money to hire someone else to do this. And it’s just way too much for this kind of a community. You have Altoona and State College that are bigger tax bases. They have more population, where they have the money that they can generate into hiring someone to do this.”

Tyrone Mayor William Latchford voted against the proposal to move forward, saying instead that they should focus on educating the importance of having the necessary equipment, such as fire extinguishers and CO2 detectors.