I just got this today at my doorstep. According to this, its from multiple firefighters from different fire companies within Bensalem, and they are NOT happy. For anyone to come out with this heat to give me this, must have really wanted this to get out!!
A group of us, all members of Bensalem fire companies got together regarding the treatment of the Union Fire Company by the Director of Public Safety, Deputy Director of Public Safety and members of the staff of the Bensalem Fire Marshal's office. Our group consisted of representatives of four of the remaining five Bensalem fire companies (Union Fire Company was not represented). We heard from the Director of Public Safety that the Union Fire Company was dangerous to the public and the fire service in Bensalem. When we asked him what the dangerous activity was, neither he, nor Ponticelli could give one example. We discussed the water incident on State Road. First, the Director of Public Safety said the Union Chief refused to give water to the paid fire company and a criminal investigation was launched. It was then changed to a delay in giving water to the paid fire company. Now we hear, that there was no delay, it was a "miscommunication". No one knew who the miscommunication was between. Several of the members of our group said they would contact friends in the Union Fire Company to see if they could get more information. We learned from the members of the Union Fire Company that they were never given information about who first accused their Chief of refusing to give water to the paid fire company. They had no idea what or who the miscommunication was between or about. What they did know was their engine arrived on location and immediately gave its tank water to the paid fire company WITHOUT DELAY. What we learned is the Director of Public Safety threatened to arrest the chief, harassed members of the fire company while they were at work, never interviewed the crew of E37 and closed the fire company down! We decided to ask the officers of our respective fire companies if they knew why Union Fire Company had been shut down. As a group we were told by our officers that Union Fire Company "refused to follow the rules". When we asked what rules Union Fire Company refused to follow, NONE OF US GOT AN ANSWER! One officer was honest enough to say; "if he is busy screwing with Union, he will leave us alone". Gee, some close knit fire community we are part of! We did learn that the Union Fire Chief raised concerns about the location and construction of the township training center. Since the completion of the facility we have learned that the chief's concerns were valid and will cost millions to correct. We also learned from the Director of Public Safety that the training center (despite his earlier public statements) that the facility is NOT COMPLETE.
Since the Director of Public Safety got involved with the Bensalem fire service, he has developed an atmosphere of fear within the fire service. Anyone member or fire company that has questions regarding his programs is attacked, harassed and driven out of the fire service. We still don't know how much each fire company is going to lose in funding to pay for the paid fire company. This after the Council and Mayor of Bensalem assured us that funding for the project WOULD NOT come from the volunteer fire companies. What the Director of Public Safety is managing to do is drive volunteers away from Bensalem. Maybe that is what he wants after all. We know that several members of one of our fire companies that are employees of the Fire Marshal's office have dreams of a fully paid fire company. We hope the taxpayers of Bensalem have an extra $12,000,000.00 plus to pay for this. Instead of recruiting volunteers at a time when the township faces an almost $10,000,000.00 deficit (after receiving $11,000,000.00 from the casino) the Director of Public Safety wasted over $5,000,000.00 on an incomplete training center that at its best will be able to do LESS than the County facility 10 minutes away in Bristol Township. Despite the Director of Public Safety's initial statement that we need this facility so firefighters won't have to travel outside the township to county facilities for training…WE STILL WILL HAVE TO TRAVEL TO COUNTY FACILITIES TO COMPLETE OUR TRAINING!
We also learned that the Director of Public Safety continues to refuse to give our fire companies copies of the SAFER grant that was awarded to the township to hire paid firefighters. When several of our fire companies obtained copies of the grant through the Freedom of Information Act he refused to discuss the controversial data that was included in the grant application to receive the award.
Our council members refuse to discuss the public safety issue the Director of Public Safety has caused. The harassment of the Union Fire Company by the Director of Public Safety continues. With our country and township in such financial difficulties, why is the township, through the Director of Public Safety chasing away unpaid professionals in the volunteer fire service?
It looks as if there ARE other individual firefighters, who are seeing through Harran and Ponticelli's lies. I also hear that Harran is getting so desperate, that he is telling the firefighters who they are and are not allowed to associate with!! Excuse me Harran, but last I checked, this is the USA, not Iran!! I have a strong piece of advice to the Firefighters of this town, and ANY Bensalem police officer brave enough to read this: Don't let Harran and Ponticelli's intimidation tactics put you in fear. REACH OUT to the Bensalem Democrats, and/or whoever you want, in exposing the evil of this town. Don't be afraid to take a stand and let the truth be heard.
Restore Honor and Integrity to Bensalem!! (II Chronicles 7:14)
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