WEEKENDER
Grammy winner
Rickie Lee Jones
bringing her show
to State College 4C
VOLUME 130, No. 317
STAY CONNECTED CENTREDAILY.COM
Penn State ex-president
Spanier’s appeal bid denied
BY MARK SCOLFORO
Associated Press
HARRISBURG, PA.
Penn State’s president when
the Jerry Sandusky child mo-
lestation scandal erupted may
soon be going to jail after Penn-
Vanishing volunteers, rising costs:
Pa. fire departments feel pressures
Firefighters in training learn how to use a fire extinguisher properly during class at the Centre County Public Safety Training Center on Jan. 17.
BY SARAH PAEZ
spaez@centredaily.com
Editor’s note: Volunteer fire
departments across the country
have fewer members than ever
before. While still vital to our com-
munities, the culture of fire depart-
ments has changed in Centre
County. The departments are also
tasked with rising costs and in-
creased demands on their mem-
bers. This is the first story in
“Sounding the Alarm,” a multi-
part series from the Centre Daily
Times that explores the unprece-
dented challenges facing these
departments.
Imagine your neighbor’s house
catches fire one bitterly cold
night. You live in a rural, wooded
area about 10 miles from the
nearest fire company.
An emergency dispatcher says
help is on the way.
Nine fire companies from
across Centre and Mifflin coun-
ties quickly arrive. Despite the
wide response, the below-zero
temperatures and hilly terrain
create obstacles to crews trying
to draw water get hoses up to the
house. One of the closest depart-
ments sends firefighters on an
CUSTOMER SERVICE
To subscribe or report delivery issues,
888-237-3801 or centredaily.com/customer-service
FACEBOOK.COM/CENTREDAILY
TWITTER.COM/CENTREDAILY
sylvania’s highest court declined
Thursday to hear the appeal of
his conviction for child endanger-
ment.
The state Supreme Court ruled
that it will not take up Graham
Spanier’s appeal of the misde-
meanor conviction related to
Spanier’s handling of a 2001
SOUNDING THE ALARM
The sign outside the Howard Fire Department reflects the need for
committed, unpaid volunteers.
engine that’s almost 30 years old.
When they try to draw water
from the creek a half-mile from
Advice
Classified
Comics
Serving central Pennsylvania and online at www.centredaily.com
SPORTS
State College boys
win close district
basketball game,
girls fall short 1B
NEWS ALL DAY.
YOUR WAY.
complaint about Sandusky show-
ering with a boy in the football
team locker room.
Spanier, 70, had argued that
the trial judge and a lower ap-
peals court wrongly relied on a
statute of limitations law that
prosecutors never cited.
He has been out on bail and
your neighbor, the rig’s pump
fails.
This wasn’t just a worst-case
15C Horoscope
5B Lottery
6B Obituaries
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2019
has not begun serving a sentence
of two months in jail and two
months’ house arrest.
Spanier’s lawyer, Sam Silver,
said they were disappointed by
the court’s decision. Prosecutors
said they were pleased.
SEE SPANIER, 3A
ABBY DREY adrey@centredaily.com
scenario but reality last month
for the Gregg Township Fire
Company, which joined other
departments to battle flames
shooting from a Potter Township
home on Mountain Spring Lane.
The house was a total loss.
The struggles faced by the
Gregg Township crew underscore
the financial and staffing pres-
sures making it tougher for vol-
unteer fire departments across
Pennsylvania to safeguard their
communities.
Fewer people are volunteering
with the companies every year,
especially in rural areas where
tax revenues may not be enough
to support a paid firefighting
force.
In the Howard Fire Company,
for example, President Mark Ott
said there’s been a 50 percent
decrease in engaged volunteers
— those who show up regularly at
weekly work nights to do mainte-
nance on the company’s equip-
ment — since the 1990s.
“It used to be when I first start-
ed there were people that were
arguing over who gets to drive
(the truck), now we’re having
trouble finding enough people to
SEE DEPARTMENTS, 3A
15C Opinion 5A
2A Puzzles 6A, 6B
4A Sports 1B
Partly cloudy
$1 39°/25° See 6A
MATT ROURKE AP
Penn State said Thursday that
former university President
Graham Spanier remains a tenured
faculty member and is on paid
administrative leave.
Penn State
to move
forward
with capital
projects
UNIVERSITY PARK
Penn State’s proposed state
appropriations for the 2019-
2020 school year are level
since last year, but the uni-
versity is set to move forward
with several big-budget capital
projects.
On Thursday, the Penn State
Board of Trustees’ finance,
business and capital planning
committee approved four large
projects that could affect cur-
rent and prospective students
and staff.
For $60.8 million, the East
Halls renovations will continue
with a second phase — the
renovations of both Sproul and
Geary halls. The two buildings
will have 573 beds in mostly
double rooms. Construction of
the entire East Halls complex is
slated to finish in 2022, with
those two buildings set for
completion in 2020.
Penn State’s College of Engi-
neering is getting two new
research and teaching facilities,
which will be designed by the
Boston architectural firm
Payette. The two buildings are
the first stage in the 20-year
West Campus College of Engi-
neering Master Plan, which
was created to keep up with
rising engineering enrollments
and advances in technology.
The master plan includes the
construction of a parking lot on
West Campus.
A final plan for a new, $65.2
million wastewater treatment
plant to serve Penn State will
also move forward. The new
plant would be able to process
3 million gallons of wastewater
a day and would reduce ground
water withdrawals by an esti-
mated 300,000 to 500,000
gallons daily, according to
Trustee Bill Sitzabee. The cur-
rent wastewater treatment
plant, located in State College
Borough, was built in 1913 and
last updated more than 60
years ago.
Penn State will also relocate
the Applied Research Lab-
oratory Steam Plant, located in
Patton Township, to the ARL
Energy Science and Power
Systems Test Facility in Benner
Township. Sitzabee said the
relocation is due, in part, to the
fact that there is a housing
development encroaching on
the current research facility
location. The relocation project
will cost $14.5 million and will
support three new ARL re-
search programs costing $620
million.
SEE PROJECTS, 2A
6 51105 22222 6
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 22 2019
CENTREDAILY.COM
FROM PAGE 1A
SPANIER
“No one is above the
law, and my office will
continue to pursue anyone
who looks the other way in
the face of child sexual
abuse,” Attorney General
Josh Shapiro said in a state-
ment. “There are conse-
quences for failing to pro-
tect children in Pennsylva-
nia.”
Spanier’s lawyers have
said that for the relevant
Howard Fire Department volunteers load hoses onto the engine during a work night on Jan. 24.
FROM PAGE 1A
DEPARTMENTS
drive,” he said.
Meanwhile, as training
and equipment costs have
escalated, money from
municipal governments has
been level or fallen short of
fire companies’ needs, Ott
said.
Even the Pennsylvania
state Legislature is paying
attention. It passed Senate
Resolution 6 in 2017, which
established a bipartisan,
bicameral commission to
recommend and oversee
improvements to the struc-
ture and delivery of emer-
gency services in the Com-
monwealth. The commis-
sion issued its report in
November 2018.
Declines in volunteers
have been decades in the
making, according to num-
bers from the Pennsylvania
Fire and Emergency Serv-
ices Institute. The state
counted some 300,000
volunteer firefighters in the
1970s but only 60,000
about 30 years later. The
number slipped again to
38,000 last year, institute
data show.
Those diminished ranks
— paired with a similar
downturn facing communi-
ty ambulance groups —
mark an unfolding crisis for
public safety, according to
a state commission spurred
by the General Assembly.
More than 90 percent of
Pennsylvania’s 2,464 fire
companies are volunteer-
run, the 39-member com-
mission reported last year.
RUNNING LIKE A
BUSINESS —
SOMEWHAT
For Mountain Top Fire
Company Chief Tim Sharp-
less, the most significant
change he’s seen during his
35 years is that his depart-
ment has started to act like
a business, with state re-
quirements and paperwork.
If volunteer fire compa-
nies are acting more like
businesses due to state
requirements and paper-
work, they’re not getting
paid like most private busi-
nesses. Their clients — the
taxpayers and residents in
the communities they pro-
tect — often aren’t bearing
the full, direct cost of fire
protection.
In Philipsburg, Hope Fire
Company gets a percentage
of funding from each mu-
nicipality it serves — Phi-
lipsburg Borough and Rush
Township in Centre Coun-
provision of the state’s
statute of limitations to
apply, prosecutors would
have needed to prove that
the boy in the shower in
2001 was less than 14 years
and 11 days old. Referred
to as “Victim 2” in court
records and testimony, the
boy’s identity has been
disputed, with prosecutors
saying they are not sure
who he is.
ty and Decatur and Boggs
townships in Clearfield
County — but it’s nowhere
near enough, Assistant
Chief Justin Butterworth
said.
“(The municipalities) all
provide us financial com-
pensation, but it is not
sufficient to operate any
sort of functional fire de-
partment,” he said. “In
order for us to keep the
lights on, pay the water bill,
pay the utilities, the basic
standard needs, the money
from the municipalities
isn’t even enough to cover
that, much less buy a
$60,000 engine.”
Grants, plus fundraisers
put on by the fire company,
provide roughly 75 percent
to 80 percent of Hope’s
money, Butterworth esti-
mated.
Though the state does
not require any training for
volunteer firefighters,
training is required to qual-
ify for many grants and
programs the state offers.
National volunteer fire-
fighter training standards
have been in place since
the 1970s.
Firefighter I training,
established through the
National Fire Protection
Association, covers basic
fire safety and behavior,
like how to operate and
identify equipment, con-
duct a search-and-rescue
and connect a pumper or
tanker to a water supply.
Firefighter II training cov-
ers how to assume com-
mand and do more special-
ized labor, like force entry
to a building, extinguish a
fire with a fire extinguisher
and protect evidence in
case of arson.
Steve Bair, the Centre
Region Council of Govern-
ments Fire Director, who
started his fire career in
Harrisburg in 1975, said he
did not get certified to
Firefighter I level until the
1980s. To train to the level
of Firefighter II, he had to
go to Delaware because
Pennsylvania did not offer
the training. Now, Penn-
sylvania offers both Fire-
fighter I and Firefighter II
training through the Office
of the State Fire Commis-
sioner.
“The ‘70s and ‘80s were
not kind to firefighters,
with many line-of-duty
deaths and many serious
injuries,” Bair said. “This
led to a strong push to
At the lower-level Super-
ior Court, two of three
judges on the appeals panel
turned down Spanier’s
arguments that too much
time had passed to charge
him, that he was not legally
obligated to care for the
boy, and that he should not
have been charged because
he did not supervise chil-
dren directly.
But the third Superior
Court judge said Spanier
should have been told at a
reasonable time before trial
that prosecutors planned to
rely on an exception to the
Fire gear hangs at Howard Fire Department.
improve (and increase)
training and the certifica-
tion system became estab-
lished.”
Over the years, the na-
tional standard for certifi-
cation has climbed from
about 50 hours to just more
than 200 hours today — an
expectation that can keep
away some would-be vol-
unteers.
In order to be selected
for a Federal Emergency
Management Agency
Assistance to Firefighters
Grant (AFG), a department
has to provide certification
data on all volunteers, said
Bair. For the state assist-
ance grant awarded an-
nually, departments can
increase their awards by a
few thousand dollars by
showing at least 10 fire-
fighters are certified to
Firefighter I, he said.
LOOKING FOR MONEY
IN A LIMITED POOL
In Howard, a small town
nestled in the Bald Eagle
Valley, the fire company
was so overwhelmed with
paperwork and grant appli-
cations that it had to hire a
grant writer in 2014, said
Ott, the company presi-
dent. It pays the writer
around $1,000 per applica-
tion.
Without grants the writer
has helped secure, Ott said,
the company would not
have been able to buy new
gear for firefighters or its
newest tanker. A FEMA
grant worth $192,000
TAX REFUND SALE
February 15th thru March 9th
10% OFF
STOREWIDE
Including New Spring Merchandise,
Rugs, and all Furniture
Mon., thru. Fri., 8am to 5pm; Sat., 8am - 3pm; Closed Sun.
205 Sharpsburg Rd, Allensville, PA 17002
two-year statute of limita-
tions. She said she would
have reversed his convic-
tion.
Two of Spanier’s top
aides when he was Penn
State’s president, former
vice president Gary Schultz
and former athletic direc-
tor Tim Curley, pleaded
guilty to child endanger-
ment and testified against
him in 2017. They have
since served county jail
sentences.
Spanier, who did not take
the stand at trial in his own
defense, has said Sand-
ABBY DREY adrey@centredaily.com
covered nearly half the
tanker’s cost.
Ott wishes the company
could line up more money
from the municipalities it
serves — Howard Borough
and Howard, Curtin and
Marion townships — but
they just don’t have the tax
base that places like State
College do, he said.
“Curtin Township — they
say they have 84 tax-paying
households in the town-
ship. How much money
can they give us?” Ott said.
“Most of those people are
living in trailers in pretty
squalid conditions out
there, to be frank. They
don’t have the money. You
know, how can we go out
there and say, ‘We really
need money from you?’”
Those economic condi-
tions make fundraising
difficult, as well. Many fire
companies in Centre Coun-
ty are rooted in enthusi-
astic communities that
donate every year. But
when the money just isn’t
there, there isn’t much that
fire officials can do, Butter-
worth said.
He pointed to a fundrais-
ing pitch that Hope Fire
Company mails to about
4,800 residences and busi-
nesses each year. Some 7
percent of recipients con-
tribute, Butterworth said.
“Those donations range
from $5 to $500,” he said.
“The nature of the commu-
nity that we live in, there’s
a lot of older residents,
there’s a lot of people on
19
New 20
Our Furniture Line is Improving
& Growing.
Higher Quality Wood & More Selections!
Custom Built just for you right here at
J&M Furniture.
Cover story
usky’s attack on the boy
was characterized to him as
horseplay.
He told the sentencing
judge he regretted he “did
not intervene more force-
fully.”
Spanier was forced out as
Penn State’s president
within days of the Novem-
ber 2011 arrests of Sand-
usky, Curley and Schultz.
He was himself charged
criminally a year later.
Penn State said Thursday
Spanier remains a tenured
faculty member and is on
paid administrative leave.
fixed incomes, there’s a lot
of people that are living off
of Social Security and dis-
ability and such.”
It’s simply “not feasible
for everybody to write a
check like, you know, a lot
of the better-off communi-
ties such as the State Col-
lege area,” Butterworth
said.
LOSING VOLUNTEERS —
AND FAST
Most volunteer fire-
fighters with at least a
decade’s experience have
seen stark change in their
companies, the most no-
ticeable being a diminished
pool of volunteers.
Butterworth joined Hope
Fire Company 16 years
ago, in 2003, before the
economic recession of
2008. In those early years,
there would always be 10
to 15 people at the station,
just hanging out for hours.
“And now, it’s hardly
ever like that ... just the
amount of people coming
in the door I’ve noticed is
significantly less,” he said.
“The amount of people
that have the time to be
here on a regular basis is
significantly less, and that’s
all because of the way the
economy went and people
needed to pick up extra
jobs.”
While urban areas have
largely recovered from the
severe economic downturn
of 2008 and 2009, rural
areas have had a much
slower recovery. The rural
unemployment rate peaked
at 10.2 percent in 2010,
according to the U.S. De-
partment of Agriculture.
In Centre County, the
unemployment rate
reached 6.4 percent after
the recession’s height in
2010. The figure has
dipped to 3.4 percent since
then, but the poverty rate
increased from 14.8 per-
cent in 2008 to 19.4 per-
cent in 2012. It was hover-
ing around 17 percent in
2016.
“People’s lives are so
much busier now. Everybo-
dy’s kids play sports. ... A
lot of people are working
two jobs to make ends
meet,” said Gregg Town-
ship Fire Chief Scott Breon.
SOCIAL CHANGES HAVE
HAD AN EFFECT
Bair, of CRCOG, said
many social changes have
led to a decrease in volun-
teers. He is also a fire chief
with Alpha Fire Company
in State College.
Thirty years ago, “your
community was defined by
your geography,” he said.
Now young people are
“savvy about the broader
world much sooner” and
don’t need to join organiza-
tions like the local fire
company to gain a local
sense of belonging, he said.
Alpha requires a volun-
teer member to go through
40 to 50 hours of training
over nine or 10 weeks. The
company gives members 18
months to clock the 204
hours of classroom time
required for national certi-
fication, Bair said.
The volume of mandato-
ry training has helped
nudge some volunteers
from Hope Fire Company,
Butterworth said.
“There’s people that are
STOP BY AND CHECK OUT OUR
EXPANDED SHOWROOM!
Bigger – Brighter – Air Conditioned
Huge Selection of Quality Used
Furniture, Bedding, Household Goods
OPEN
centrepeace.org
3A
The school does not release
his salary.
Sandusky is serving 30 to
60 years on a 45-count
child sexual abuse convic-
tion. He maintains he was
wrongly convicted and
recently won a Superior
Court decision that granted
him a new sentencing but
did not give him the new
trial he sought.
The scandal has cost the
university more than a
quarter-billion dollars,
including payments to
those who said Sandusky
abused them as boys.
interested in joining to the
fire company to help their
community, you know,
serve the community, the
excitement or the rush of
responding to the emergen-
cies ... but they don’t un-
derstand that with that
comes hundreds of hours
of training,” he said.
Because not all volunteer
firefighters in Pennsylvania
are nationally certified,
Bair said, departments and
the people they serve can
face safety problems.
Whether volunteers have
training is left to the dis-
cretion of fire chiefs in any
one of Pennsylvania’s
roughly 2,400 fire depart-
ments. Theoretically, a
volunteer firefighter in
Pennsylvania could enter a
burning building without
training.
Even though that’s not
the case in many Centre
County volunteer fire com-
panies, fewer trained vol-
unteers means fewer peo-
ple who show up and are
actually able to fight a fire.
But training itself also
creates problems, said
Sharpless, because volun-
teer firefighters working
full-time jobs elsewhere
don’t want to go through
the training on top of a
40-plus-hour work week.
The state can’t mandate
training “because then
everyone would quit,”
Sharpless said. But they do
require departments to be
nationally certified if they
want to qualify for certain
grants, he said.
“If you want the money,
then you have to take the
training,” Sharpless said.
“It’s the ‘You do it — or
else.’ ”
FUNDRAISING INSTEAD
OF FIREFIGHTING
Since the cost of running
a volunteer fire company
has increased so much over
the past three decades,
departments have leaned
on community fundraisers
to help compensate for
what they dub a lack of
state and municipal sup-
port.
But the energy put into
bi-monthly hoagie sales,
spaghetti dinners, chicken
barbecues and other events
barely makes a dent in
most costs, volunteers said.
“To buy a new fire en-
gine, we (would have) had
to sell like 133,000 hoa-
gies,” Sharpless said. “It’s
not even practical to think
that ... but that’s the real-
ity.”
Ott, the fire company
president in Howard, said a
$500 haul from a chicken
barbecue “doesn’t go a
long way.”
“A chicken barbecue
takes 15 people hours,” he
said. “You know, it’s just
not worth it.”
Sarah Paez: 814-231-4616,
@Spaez7
Monday - Saturday
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
3047 Benner Pike
(5 minutes past Nittany Mall)
814-353-9081