In a dispute with its fire department, Irwin officials are holding for ransom copies of prior budgets until the borough is reimbursed $2,200 to cover extra ambulance fuel expenses incurred in providing patient transfers.
“When we get what we asked for, we will exchange,” council member Gail Macioce told the fire department at a meeting this week.
“So you don’t trust your local fire hall,” Deputy Fire Chief Shawn Stitely said in a testy exchange at Wednesday’s meeting in response to Macioce’s comment.
The two sides could discuss the matter further at a budget workshop on Tuesday.
The fire department this summer began a non-emergency patient transfer service and had mistakenly used borough funds to pay for fuel, borough officials said.
Stitely said borough officials never responded to a request he made on Aug. 30 for copies of previous annual budgets. The deputy fire chief repeatedly asked when the department could get budgets from previous years.