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Black Diamond Hose Co. #2 on Rock Street in Archbald on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (ROBERT TOMKAVAGE\/STAFF PHOTO)<\/p>\nAn Archbald resident concerned about potential consolidation of the four fire stations in the borough pointed to steady population growth and the prospect of large-scale data centers as reasons for keeping them all open.<\/p>\n
Despite social media rumblings suggesting two stations in the borough will close, the mayor and borough manager confirmed that council hasn\u2019t made any decisions. When reached by phone, Archbald council President Louis Rapoch declined to comment on the council\u2019s plans for the stations.<\/p>\n
Black Diamond Hose Co. #2 on Rock Street in Archbald on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (ROBERT TOMKAVAGE\/STAFF PHOTO)<\/p>\n
A post on the Facebook page of the Black Diamond Hose Co. 2 reads, \u201cThe Archbald Borough Council has announced it intends to close 2 of the 4 fire stations in the borough. Black Diamond Hose Co. #2 is one of the stations to be eliminated\u201c<\/p>\n
Attempts to reach Black Diamond officials for additional comments were unsuccessful. In a reply to a reporter\u2019s question on social media about potential consolidation of fire services in the borough, East Side Hose Co. 4 declined to comment.<\/p>\n
In 2026, council members allotted $68,000 \u2014 $17,000 for each of Archbald\u2019s four fire stations \u2014 less than 1% of the borough\u2019s overall budget of $7,103,031.<\/p>\n
The next borough council meeting is scheduled for Aug. 19 at 6 p.m. at the Municipal Building, 400 Church St.<\/p>\n
Mike McAndrew, who resides in Archbald\u2019s Nebraska section, believes a roughly 20% population increase in the borough since the early 2000s and continued discussions about data center development should prompt council members to maintain each firehouse rather than consolidating.<\/p>\n
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Archbald\u2019s population grew from 6,220 in 2000 to an estimated 7,598 as of July 2025 \u2014 an increase of 22%.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s something they\u2019re looking to do, it\u2019s disappointing,\u201d McAndrew said. \u201c(The borough) still has a lot of undeveloped land. There\u2019s housing developments going up and the more houses and residents you have, the more potential for structural hazards there are. We don\u2019t know if data centers are coming, but if they are we need to have all the fire departments available. I\u2019d hate to see us in a position where we don\u2019t have enough fire departments.\u201d<\/p>\n
McAndrew believes recruitment efforts should be ramped up before any final decisions are made.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to pretend I have the answer, but it would seem to me that they should explore every option before closing or merging two,\u201d he said. \u201c(Black Diamond) has been in service since 1900; that\u2019s a long time of faithful service to the community. I know the issue is a shortage of volunteers but I think it would be prudent to give them every opportunity to expand their membership before just shuttering them and saying you\u2019re closed or we\u2019re merging you with another department.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fire Chief Bob Harvey stressed the safety of residents should always come first amid any consolidation talks. He feels Black Diamond Hose Co. 2 on Rock Street and East Side Hose Co. 4 along Salem Road provide a vital service to the community and would be missed if eliminated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one thing if you\u2019re going to council and saying we need another fire station in the East Side section or the Number 5 Hill section, and there\u2019s nothing there right now,\u201d Harvey said. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot to ask, to put a station there, but they are already there and they\u2019re new buildings. They\u2019re there for the fast accessibility for a structure fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harvey called for council to impose a fire service tax in upcoming budgets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf council gives a line item and there is a tax where X amount of the budget is dedicated to the fire service then the fire service will be guaranteed to be in business,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Harvey hopes to help facilitate an amicable agreement between the volunteer firefighters and council members.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully we\u2019ll come up with a solution that will be mutually agreeable and everything will work out for the residents of the municipality,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m always trying to get council to put fire protection, and health and safety, on the top of the budget. If anything has to be sacrificed, it has to come from other areas. There could be a lot of speculation. I\u2019m trying to look at it from protecting the residents, period. That\u2019s my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harvey added consolidation of fire stations has been discussed in the past and he wouldn\u2019t rule it out in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had the fire study done from the state of Pennsylvania,\u201d he said. \u201cWe took some of their recommendations, we worked on it, and we\u2019re looking into the future. Consolidation down the road \u2026 is probably going to happen, I would say. Whether I live to see it or not, I don\u2019t know, but it seems that\u2019s the way the whole valley\u2019s going to be going whether it\u2019s consolidation locally or regionalization. The alternative is that the community has to put a paid department in, and I personally feel the community can\u2019t afford a paid department.\u201d<\/p>\n
State study recommended mergers<\/p>\n
The state Department of Community and Economic Development began a project in December 2021 to assess the fire services for Archbald.<\/p>\n
The DCED\u2019s Fire Feasibility Study \u2014 issued in May 2022 \u2014 offered recommendations intended to align the borough\u2019s fire and rescue agencies with the best national practices and build a cooperative relationship between the volunteer membership of the agencies with a common objective, professional response and preparation for community service growth, DCED officials said in the report.<\/p>\n
DCED officials organized virtual meetings with the municipal officials of Archbald and volunteer membership of the four independent, nonprofit volunteer fire companies, and visited the four fire station facilities, interacting with available members, per the report.<\/p>\n
In the study, DCED officials provided recommendations to phase out the Black Diamond and East Side fire stations over time. The report also proposed the construction of a new firehouse to store the merged parties under one roof in a central location to service the eastern half of the borough.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis facility should not receive any additional expansion or improvement,\u201d officials said of East Side Hose Company. \u201c(It\u2019s) recommended that this facility should not be used in its continuance as an open and working response facility. Long term, this facility should eventually be faded out of service within the next five to eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n
DCED noted Black Diamond services only \u201cone small branch of a residentially zoned area,\u201d making its a prime candidate for consolidation.<\/p>\n
At the time of the report, DCED officials also said no more response units should be stored at Archbald Fire Company 1. The fire station merged with Archbald Community Ambulance and Rescue Squad in 2024 to form Archbald Fire and Rescue Squad. The Eynon Hose Company 3 and the Sturges Hose Company 5 merged in 2013 to form the Eynon-Sturges Hose Company 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Archbald resident concerned about potential consolidation of the four fire stations in the borough pointed to steady…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2117,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-259909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-archbald","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}