Gill Hall Volunteer Fire Co. hopes to be dispatched to calls again starting Friday were dashed two days prior by a Jefferson Hills Council vote to decertify the company.
Council voted 5-2 Wednesday night to no longer recognize the 72-year-old, 20-member department as a borough fire company after a lengthy back-and-forth about Gill Hall’s future both that evening and Monday night.
Councilman Keith Reynolds and Councilwoman Nicole Ruscitto dissented.
Ruscitto said she thought Gill Hall was still on probation and council did not need to take any action, while Reynolds argued for its return to dispatch.
“If they were a recognized fire hall in our community, they would have had to give them a portion of foreign fire tax money to Gill Hall,” Reynolds said after the meeting.
The next motion made Wednesday after Gill Hall’s decertification was to approve the distribution of more than $66,000 in Pennsylvania Foreign Fire Insurance funds to Jefferson Hills Fire Rescue Relief Association.