As the Belle Valley Fire Department continues its standoff with Millcreek Township, the volunteer department has been given an ultimatum.
Since Millcreek Township Supervisors created the paid Millcreek Fire Department back in 2023, Belle Valley remains the last of four volunteer departments to sign off on a cooperation agreement with the township.
On Tuesday, Millcreek Township Supervisors and Millcreek Fire Chief Michael Cliff expressed concerns over Belle Valle Fire Department’s response rates.
According to the township, in 2025 Belle Valley volunteers recorded 3326 emergency calls and responded to 167, or 51.2% There were 159 calls with no recorded response.
In 2026, the township says Belle Valley volunteers recorded 261 emergency calls and responded to 145, or 55.6%, and there were 116 calls with no recorded response.
By failing to respond to calls, Chief Cliff says Belle Valley is in breach of its 1999 agreement with Millcreek Township.
“We can’t continue doing what we’ve always done and expecting a different outcome,” said Chief Cliff. “It’s time for the township to take action and hold them accountable to the ordinances of the township.”
Millcreek Township is now giving Belle Valley 30 days to sign a cooperation agreement, which would allow paid firefighters to use Belle Valley’s building and equipment.
“We want to see them within 30 days conform to the records management system,” said Chief Cliff. “The second thing would be within 15 days, to meet to discuss signing onto the agreement which would give the Millcreek Township paid staff access to Belle Valley’s fire station as well as all of their trucks and equipment.”
According to Chief Cliff, if Belle Valley doesn’t sign off on the agreement, the township will consider terminating its current agreement with the department, which would decertify Belle Valley from making fire and EMS calls.
“Unfortunately, the people who lose in this, is the residents of Millcreek Township,” said Chief Cliff. “We need to work together. We need Belle Valley to come on board, just like the other three departments in the township have done, to have the interest of the residents in Belle Valley as their top priority.”
The Bell Valley Fire Department provided Erie News Now with the following statement in response to Millcreek Township request:
Belle Valley Fire Department to Chief Cliff:
You Cannot Threaten Volunteers and Call It Cooperation
Late Monday afternoon, the Belle Valley Fire Department received a threatening letter from Millcreek Township Fire Chief Mike Cliff warning of serious consequences unless the department complied with his demands. The letter declared Belle Valley in “material breach” of its agreement with the Township and imposed deadlines that could ultimately lead to its termination.
Not even 24 hours later, Chief Cliff and the Millcreek Township Supervisors held a press conference to attack Belle Valley publicly, without even extending the basic courtesy of informing us that it was taking place.
That is not how partners resolve differences. It is not how you work in good faith. And it makes clear that the people currently in charge of Millcreek Township are more interested in publicity rather than sitting down and negotiating in good faith with volunteer fire departements.
Chief Cliff’s letter claims there is a “willingness to work with Belle Valley.” His actions tell a very different story. In fact, since taking the helm of the Millcreek Fire Department, Chief Cliff has established a troubling pattern of threats, pressure, and public attacks against the Township’s volunteer fire departments.
At the May 28 Fire Commission meeting, Chief Cliff threatened to withhold state-allocated fire relief tax money that is provided to volunteer fire departments because Belle Valley had not signed an agreement that would have required us to turn over all of our assets to him. (see below for background information on the state-allocated funds that are solely provided to volunteer fire departments in Pennsylvania)
Chief Cliff’s use of language in the past has foreshadowed the direction he has wanted to go, and now he is foreshadowing his intent to commandeer the equipment and apparatus owned by Belle Valley Fire Department by stating in his Sept. 1, 2026, press release:
“Millcreek Township contends that the equipment and apparatus [owned by Belle Valley Fire Department] belong to the residents of Millcreek Township and would be best utilized in response to emergency situations by the Millcreek Fire Department.”
Chief Cliff’s clear intent to commandeer Belle Valley’s equipment and apparatus is also supported by his recent correspondence to Belle Valley in which he stated that a demand of the Township is to renegotiate an agreement between the Township and Belle Valley to address the Township’s unrestricted use of BVFD’s fire house and equipment.
That demand is not a minor administrative matter. Belle Valley is a nonprofit organization with a fiduciary responsibility to safeguard the equipment, trucks, station and other assets that have been purchased by or donated to the department. Simply handing those assets over to another entity raises serious fiduciary concerns.
So, when the Township says it is “willing to work with Belle Valley,” the obvious question is: Why is the Township threatening the department’s funding unless it agrees to give away assets it has a legal and fiduciary obligation to protect?
That is not what good-faith collaboration looks like.
Monday’s letter did not occur in a vacuum. It is the latest in a series of actions under Chief Cliff that have raised serious questions about his treatment of Millcreek’s volunteer fire departments, including:
The original purpose of the paid department. When township supervisors created the paid department in January 2023, the stated purpose was to provide supplemental coverage alongside the existing volunteer fire departments (meeting minute link, page 3). Since then, there has been growing concern that the direction has shifted toward consolidating fire services under the paid department and Chief Cliff at the expense of the volunteer departments.
Coverage in the Belle Valley area. Belle Valley was informed by Chief Cliff that there would be no paid coverage at the station on Old French Road assigned to the Belle Valley area over a weekend in August, but the duration of the lack of coverage last nearly 20 days. Any paid response would have come from Kearsarge, resulting in an estimated 10- to 15-minute response time to our community. No paid apparatus was staged nearby to provide coverage. This adds to a growing list of concerns among Belle Valley and others that there are staffing issues within the paid department.
Vehicle Loans without adequate insurance for repairs. In May and June 2025, Belle Valley loaned Chief Cliff a pump truck but reclaimed the apparatus after their attorney advised that the Township should enter into a formal agreement governing the arrangement so that any damages would be appropriately covered by insurance. Although the township is required by PA law to provide a minimum amount of liability insurance for rigs belonging to volunteer fire departments, that coverage is limited; repairing damage to these vehicles can exceed that range significantly.
The department sent the contract to Chief Cliff last year, but to date, it has not been returned as signed and executed. Just before the Aug. 4 National Night Out, Chief Cliff did request to borrow one of Belle Valley’s trucks, but the department declined since he has not signed that vehicle contract, which would ensure that the volunteer department’s truck would be covered for any damages. Belle Valley has been informed by at least one other volunteer department that has loaned Chief Cliff rigs that the trucks have come back damaged, including a ladder truck that was returned with the ladder mechanism damaged.
Dispatch patterns. Dispatch records over the past decade provide important context. From 2013 through 2019, Belle Valley was dispatched to a relatively consistent number of calls, averaging approximately 809 calls annually. Call volume declined during COVID, as it did for many emergency service organizations, before beginning to level out again in 2022. Since the formation of the paid department, however, Belle Valley’s dispatch numbers have declined significantly:
2013-2019 average: approximately 809 calls annually;
2022: 522 dispatches;
2023: 404 dispatches;
2024: 341 dispatches; and
As of July 24, 2026: 243 dispatches
Belle Valley’s current dispatch volume is less than half of its pre-COVID annual average.
There have also been specific incidents that raise questions about how dispatch decisions are being made. In one instance, an emergency call occurred at the Belle Valley fire station, yet Belle Valley itself was not dispatched. In other instances, the City of Erie has been requested to provide mutual aid within Belle Valley’s service territory rather than Belle Valley being dispatched as the primary agency.
We also understand that calls that would ordinarily be dispatched to Belle Valley have, in some instances, instead been routed to the City of Erie, requiring Erie to pay overtime for responses into Millcreek Township.
Belle Valley cannot speak to Millcreek Fire Services’ decision-making regarding dispatch protocols. However, the significant reduction in calls has had real consequences for volunteer morale and recruitment. Volunteer fire service remains an important avenue for people who want to train, serve their neighbors, and contribute to emergency response without pursuing firefighting as a full-time career.
Chief Cliff’s decision to issue a threat, impose deadlines, and then immediately take that threat to the media is not good-faith collaboration. It is an attempt to apply public pressure to a volunteer fire department that has spent nearly 90 years serving Millcreek Township.
The Belle Valley Fire Department will not be intimidated or threatened into surrendering our department, our assets or our voice.
We, again, call on the Millcreek Board of Supervisors to come to the table and have a serious discussion about returning the paid fire department to its original purpose: supplementing the Township’s volunteer fire departments, not replacing them or forcing them to surrender their assets.
We are willing to work with Township leaders who approach the issue in good faith. What we will not accept are threats delivered in writing and then immediately delivered to reporters.
Chief Cliff’s decision to issue this threat and then publicly distribute it should concern every volunteer firefighter in Millcreek Township, and every resident who depends on them.
Belle Valley has remained true to its mission of serving the residents of Millcreek Township.