Inaugural Steering Committee Members

Robert Perciaccante – Friendship	Thomas Dimmerling – Humane
William Latch – Humane	Charles Chell - Humane
Craig Keffer – Friendship	George Gilliano – Friendship Ambulance
Gary Wezel – Humane	Dave Panetta - Friendship
Thomas Weikel – Royersford Borough

            
                       
                        
                            

 

This committee was tasked with discovery projects for how to consolidate the operational, administrative, and financial aspects of both organizations.  Operational items such as officer hierarchy, apparatus location, and response procedures all needed to be established. With nine pieces of apparatus and two stations, it was a juggling act, to say the least. Certain apparatus would only fit in certain stations so a comprehensive response procedure was worked out to allow members to utilize both stations. On February 1st, 2011 the fire operations were consolidated and station numbers 84 (Humane) and 85 (Friendship) were retired in favor of the new Royersford Fire Department station number 98.  The officer structure was consolidated to one unified command structure under the department’s first Fire Chief Gary Wezel. 

However, the consolidation was far from over as much work was still to be done. Administrative and financial consolidation would take several more months and items such as joint bank accounts and how the new Royersford Fire Department entity would be established were discussed in great detail. With the help of legal counsel and the hard work of the steering committee both companies approved the incorporation of a new entity to be titled the "Royersford Fire Department." The newly formed entity would take ownership of the assets of both consolidating organizations and the Royersford Fire Department was formally incorporated on July 11th, 2011.

Royersford Fire Department Founding Directors

President - Craig Keffer	Financial Secretary - Thomas Dimmerling
Fire Chief - Gary Wezel	Trustee - George Gilliano
Vice President - Jared Weeks	Trustee - David Panetta
Secretary - Jessica Meyer	Trustee - Robert Perciaccante
Treasurer - William Latch

             
                 
      
             
 

 

With this major milestone accomplished the final vision for the Royersford Fire Department began to come into view. At this point, a five-year plan was put before the company to finish the consolidation of assets, finalize the entity structure, work with Royersford Borough Council on a budget and finalize a plan for a new station. 

The final consolidation of assets and entity structure took the better part of the next two years as we worked with legal counsel to organize the Royersford Fire Department umbrella to best suit everyone. What was once the Friendship Hook, Ladder and Hose Company #2 was now repurposed to be solely the Social Club, which would benefit the Royersford Fire Department, as it had Friendship for so many years.  Friendship Hook, Ladder, Hose and Ambulance, Inc. which is the ambulance entity within Friendship continues to operate and saw many continuity and operational efficiencies of the consolidation. Both these entities are governed by and fall under the Royersford Fire Department. An extreme amount of time and effort was spent to ensure that both the social club and the ambulance had a seamless transition during the consolidation process. Both are integral parts of the Royersford Fire Department with unique complexities which meant added care was needed while going through the consolidation process. Many hours were spent to construct the best organizational structure possible.

The New Station

Beginning in 2013 exploratory efforts began to determine the best final home for the Royersford Fire Department. With fire, ambulance and social club all having to be considered no option was left off the table. The company explored an addition to the Green Street property, buying a warehouse in town and converting it, building on current land we owned and buying land to build on. Each had their advantages and disadvantages and after much deliberation it was ultimately decided that a new station would be built at 3rd Avenue and Walnut Street on the property across the street from the Humane station. This property was acquired in the 1980s by the Humane with the intention of building a new station. Now some 30 years later the land would finally see that purpose realized. During this process, it was determined because of the hall and social club the Green Street station would remain functioning regardless of the final decision on a building. The Green Street station has been converted to support the ambulance function and the continued function of the social club and hall.

In January 2014 a formal building committee was established to oversee the project to build a station house at 3rd Avenue and Walnut Street. The committee was tasked with developing a building that would carry the department into the future.  This new station needed to blend with the culture of our community, meet current national standards and safely house all of our firefighters and apparatus in a way that will ensure our community is properly protected for decades to come. The department needed accomplish this project while remaining fiscally responsible to the community. The committee worked diligently for two years going through the proper steps to design, fund, and implement the new station. The company partnered with Branca Construction, Jeffrey A. Norman Architects and Estock Engineering to design a four-bay 10,884 square foot structure made of steel that would face Walnut Street at 3rd Avenue. The building would consist of a 5,600 square foot two-story living and administrative area and a 5,284 sqft apparatus bay. The building would have capacity for four full-size apparatus as well as multiple support vehicles and ambulances. There would be sleeping quarters, offices, training room, kitchen, and lounge.  There would also be a small antique room to house the memories of both the Humane and Friendship. 

These plans came to reality on a snowy April morning and on April 9th, 2016 the Royersford Fire Department officially broke ground on their new station.  Construction began right away and the building was completed 10 months later.  The building was officially turned over to the Royersford Fire Department on January 30th, 2017.  Since then much hard work and dedication have been put into getting the company’s new home up and running. The new station was officially dedicated on September 16th, 2017.