{"id":936377,"date":"2026-07-15T10:37:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T10:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/936377\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T10:37:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T10:37:33","slug":"upper-darby-pulls-back-on-move-to-take-second-fire-company-property-by-eminent-domain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/936377\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper Darby pulls back on move to take second fire company property by eminent domain"},"content":{"rendered":"

A proposal to take a second Upper Darby fire company station by eminent domain<\/a> has been set aside for now.<\/p>\n

Upper Darby Council was expected to begin discussions at the Wednesday night meeting to acquire the Primos-Secane-Westbrook Park Fire Company, station 74, property at 1005 Secane Ave. in Secane.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, council President Marion Minick announced that after discussions among council members, council leadership decided additional work on the ordinance was needed.<\/p>\n

\"AnotherAnother entrance at the Primos Secane Westbrook Park Fire Company. Fire company President Joseph Vizzarri and its board Chair Thomas Micozzie said they believed discussions with the township were progressing toward a cooperative solution. (PETE BANNAN-DAILY TIMES)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an important public safety matter with long-term implications for the township, and we intend to continue those discussions and bring the legislation back at the appropriate time,\u201d said Minick.<\/p>\n

In an earlier news release, Minick said the proposal was intended to protect the community fire station as a permanent public asset dedicated to fire protection and emergency services, ensuring it remains available to serve the residents of Upper Darby Township for generations to come.<\/p>\n

\"UpperUpper Darby Council President Marion Minick. (COURTESY PHOTO)<\/p>\n

According to Minick, Company 74 has been allocated approximately $170,000 annually in township funding. Earlier this year, the township adopted reimbursement and accountability requirements governing those public funds to strengthen oversight and reinforce responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources.<\/p>\n

In recent years the number of firefighters able to volunteer in the township has greatly diminished. The 71-year-old volunteer fire company is also staffed by career township firefighters.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the executive leadership of Primos-Secane-Westbrook Park Fire Company posted a press release<\/a> stating they became aware of the possible eminent domain from the council meeting agenda.<\/p>\n

Primos volunteers say they had been working in good faith with the township administration to address accountability issues when the eminent domain was ordinance was put forward.<\/p>\n

Fire company officials said accountability concerns have been addressed through a transparent and unbiased review process, and company leadership has taken part in numerous meetings, phone calls and other communication with township officials.<\/p>\n

Fire company President Joseph Vizzarri and its board Chair Thomas Micozzie said they believed discussions were progressing toward a cooperative solution.<\/p>\n

The fire company leadership said they were disappointed by what they called the dismissive treatment of the fire company by a minority of council members.<\/p>\n

The stations asked residents to attend Wednesday\u2019s council meeting to voice their support for the company.<\/p>\n

In May, council approved the first step in authorizing the acquisition of another volunteer fire company building<\/a> in the township.<\/p>\n

The leadership at Upper Darby Fire Company No. 1 located at 7241 West Chester Pike, put their firehouse up for sale in April,\u00a0 saying, \u201cThere is no long-term role for our station as an active volunteer firehouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t clear how far along the eminent domain process was in that matter.<\/p>\n

The township has also been involved in a dispute with one of the other volunteer stations<\/a>, Garrettford Drexel Hill Fire Company over proper staffing. That station went out of service for a short period of time over a dispute on whether units could respond without a qualified officer.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Primos branch of the Upper Darby Library system sits near the fire station. (PETE BANNAN-DAILY TIMES)<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, afternoon some life members of the fire company were at the station and talked about the threat of eminent domain.<\/p>\n

Dan Reagoso and Bruce Criscuolo both joined in 1967, and in addition to volunteering on weekends would work as relief drivers for the career staff. They are both now life members of the fire company.<\/p>\n

They pointed out the fire company owns the property that the Primos library sits on, too. Micozzie added that the company hasn\u2019t raised the rent at the library for 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the original firehouse. We put the bricks on it,\u201d Reagoso said.<\/p>\n

The two pointed out that restrictions on training and membership has made it onerous to join the fire company.<\/p>\n

Some guys want to walk away. I\u2019m a fighter,\u201d said Reagoso. \u201cI don\u2019t believe in throwing things away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Criscuolo said firefighters from Primos Secane have fought many difficult fires, including with the foam unit when they responded to the Gulf Oil Refinery fire and the 1975 Corinthos fire in Marcus Hook.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put an awful lot of time in and seen an awful lot of fires, thousands of alarms,\u201d Criscuolo said. \u201cFor somebody just to say, we\u2019re going to dissolve you and just go away. I\u2019m sorry, how would you feel? We have an awful lot of memories in this place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Criscuolo said the guys in the firehouse are like a military unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all faced fire. We all eat smoke. We\u2019ve all been on the end of a nozzle in hairy conditions. We\u2019ve seen death and you just do not put that away,\u201d Criscuolo said. \u201cIt\u2019s like military units, their flag, squadron number, infantry number, you throw that flag away, you this firehouse away, you throw our flag away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials at the fire company declined further comment on Tuesday stating they are working with a public relations firm to ensure information is communicated accurately and consistently.<\/p>\n

Township officials said the library does not sit on township property.<\/p>\n

\"DanDan Reagoso, left, and Bruce Criscuolo both joined Primos Secane Westbrook Park Fire Company in 1967. They didn’t have anything good to say about Upper Darby Township’s interest in taking the fire station property. (PETE BANNAN-DAILY TIMES)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A proposal to take a second Upper Darby fire company station by eminent domain has been set aside…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":936378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,5295,7282,728,50,1448,2830,1311,11104,67,586,132,5230,40121,68,2969],"class_list":["post-936377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-delaware-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-top-stories-dtd","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-upper-darby-township","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116923562355943252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}