Hometown Volunteer Fire Company officials questioned a new Rush Township ordinance that requires volunteer fire companies to have their accounts periodically audited.

Company Chief Barry Messerschmidt said that when the proposed ordinance was published in the Times News earlier this month, he began receiving telephone calls.

People surmised that something was wrong, he said.

“People get the impression that you’re auditing fire companies because there is stuff missing. That’s not even a thought with the Rush Township fire company,” Supervisors’ Chairman Shawn Gilbert said during Thursday’s supervisors’ meeting.

He said the board is requiring the periodic audits as a matter of checks and balances.

“I want to make this perfectly clear. Things have changed over the years and it’s a new time now. The township just wants to see an auditing - not saying there’s some big issue with the fire company,” Gilbert said. “We have no issues. We don’t think there’s money missing or anything like that.”

Seeing the audits, he said, would help supervisors determine if the fire company needs additional finances. If that’s the case, he said, supervisors could consider raising the taxes that property owners pay for fire protection from volunteer companies.

“If a fire company fails in any community, the township has to pick up the pieces,” Gilbert explained.

George Gerhard, the fire company’s treasurer, had some issues with wording in the ordinance.

“To be perfectly clear, we’re not against this. We’re against how it was presented to us and how it was handled,” he said.

While the potential for audits was mentioned about six months ago to company members, Gerhard said no discussions had occurred with supervisors since then.

He had hoped for a meeting, he said, to discuss wording and other issues. Instead, he said, he received a copy of the finished ordinance May 6.

Gerhard asked why the positions of chief and treasurer were singled out in the ordinance’s wordage.

Solicitor Chris Reidlinger said he chose those positions because they would be “in charge of the fire company in general or the finances of the fire company in particular.”

“I certainly meant no negative implications to the persons holding those offices,” he explained.

“I think a lot of this stems from a lack of communication,” Gerhard said.

Supervisor Robert Leibensperger added that the township is attempting to update its roster of ordinances.

“Anything that didn’t have an ordinance we are putting to ordinance, like the International Maintenance Code and other stuff,” he said. “This is so everything we do within the township falls within the rules of the estate and has a valid ordinance or resolution.”

Messerschmidt hoped that results of the audit will be made public.

The board unanimously adopted the ordinance.