A Tamaqua resident asked why the Tamaqua Fire Department didn’t participate in a recent parade to honor the Tamaqua Youth Football team following its recent Tri-County Youth Football League championship win.

“It’s only the second time in 30 years that they’ve done this,” said Tom Williams, president of Tamaqua Knee-Hi Football. “We had requested a parade.”

Williams said that a Tamaqua fire official told football team representatives that the department was unable to provide one. He asked Tamaqua Borough Council whether there was a parade policy.

“My understanding is that the fire department has a policy through the chiefs that they do not participate in those types of parades unless it’s at a high school-ish championship level and unless it’s prearranged ahead of time,” council President Brian Connely said. “That’s been the policy.”

Tamaqua Fire Chief James Connely said the policy was formulated after input from chiefs from each of the borough’s four fire companies.

“We feel basically that it is a pull on our volunteers’ time,” James Connely said. “Our own companies pull on our volunteers a lot for training, for fundraising and you still have the calls going on. It’s a lot of being pulled in many directions.”

Stepping back from parade participation, he said, gives the volunteers a little break and time to spend with their families.

“It’s nothing to slight anybody who has a request,” James Connely said.

He noted that he was the one who decided to decline department parade participation.

“I brought this up to the other company chiefs and they agreed,” James Connely said.

“I can respect that you want to respect the time of your volunteers as I would as well,” Williams said. “In our case, it was the second time in 30 years. It happens so few and far in between. We have 17 teams in our league.”

He noted that other local fire companies participated in the parade.

Brian Connely added that liability issues can arise if someone gets hurt. He noted that the Tamaqua Police Department wasn’t aware that the parade was underway.

Former Tamaqua fire Chief Tom Schlorf said the policy wasn’t new.

“Back when I was fire chief, back in 2007 and 2008, it started back then,” Schlorf said. “We held it to district championships and that wasn’t bad. You had your 24 hour notice. We did parades. But times have changed and insurances have changed.”

Tamaqua assistant fire Chief Mark Bower said he wanted to offer “food for thought” and spoke about volunteer hours and expenses for fire companies.

In 2024, he noted that the South Ward Fire Company saw 229 calls for fires, motor vehicle accidents. rescues and other emergencies.

“That’s just out of one station and I know the other three station are pushing the same issue,” he said.

Bower said volunteers logged the following number of hours: fundraising, 1,865; meetings, 408; prevention, 167; on-scene, 1,593; maintenance, 602; standby, 586; special assignments, 40; and public relations, 223.

“Nobody is trying to shortchange the kids in this community at all,” Bower said. “If we were trying to do that, we wouldn’t be putting this time out that we do for our own community.”

He added that while the borough allots $15,000 to fire companies each year, the South Ward spends $14,000 of it on insurances. The rest of the borough-issued funding is spent on fuel oil.

“The borough is responsible for workmen’s comp but they do not pay for the maintenance on our trucks or for our fire equipment,” he said.

Donations to the fire department’s annual fund drive are decreasing year after year, Bower added.

“Just to put a firefighter in a pair of boots — 600 bucks. A helmet — 400 to 600 bucks. A coat — $2,800. A pair of pants — $2,075, a pair of gloves — $200,” he said.

Breathing apparatus cost $8,000 each, portable radios are $6,000 and mobile radios are $8,000, Bower said.

“I’m not making this stuff up. I think everybody has to see what we are up against, too,” he said.