“Because they’re a brotherhood!”

That is what Scott Delany, chief of Station 39 Muncy Area Volunteer Fire Co. said Tuesday afternoon as he and others in the company guided three fire engines from Muncy Township Volunteer Fire Co. into the engine bays at the station along Penn Street, a 10-minute drive from nearby Pennsdale.

The engines and an ambulance rolled out of the station at Pennsdale on Tuesday shortly after 5 p.m. traveling east on Interstate 180 to Muncy Creek Township.

A host of firefighters and officers awaited their arrival.

They left because of the need to sanitize the station at Pennsdale by a company specializing in remediation of bacterial contamination — a matter still awaiting approval by two Muncy Township supervisors.

“She did not sign,” said Nicholas Palmatier, Muncy Township Fire Co. president, beside Scott Oldweiler, Muncy Township Fire Co. chief., referring to Supervisor Terri Lauchle, who Palmatier said spoke for two hours Monday about this situation. There was a 24-hour window before the engines would roll out to the neighboring fire company, he said.

The two blank lines are on the “Amendment to Authorization to Perform Services and Direction of Payment.”

It requires signatures of two township supervisors.

The fire officials said they believe it can be by Terri Lauchle, chair, and Denise Artley, vice chair, or Heath Ohnmeiss.

Palmatier signed the document, as did the representative of the remediation company.

Because of the delay since April 11, when the sewage back-up occurred, the fire company personnel were prepared early Monday night to

relocate their engines to nearby Muncy Area Volunteer Fire Co. in Muncy Creek Township, a 10-minute drive from the station in Pennsdale.

They delayed that after having a two-hour meeting with the supervisors that they had hoped would produce a resolution to this issue and restore the relationship between the fire company and the supervisors.

The signing of the document would allow remediation specialists from ServPro to enter the premises of the fire station to begin a process of cleaning up a bacterial contamination caused by sewage backing up and entering the station’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and basically making the building uninhabitable for health and safety reasons.

Palmatier said he was told the company would be able to go in and begin to disinfect the walls, ceilings of the engine bays.

The signatures also would, effectively, end a lawsuit the fire company has against the township and supervisors, according to the amendment’s text.

“The amendment is to prevent and stop further litigation between the parties and to clarify any confusion with respect to necessary cleanup and remediation services,” it stated.

The text states that the customer in the authorization includes both the township and fire company.

Payment direction is included in the text. It states the fire company agrees to pay the deductible for either its insurance claim and/or the insurance claim for the township. If any amounts owing to the provider for the provider services are not covered by insurance, the fire company agrees to pay those amounts to the provider within 15 days of the fire company’s receipt of the invoice, according to the text.

It is fully understood that the fire company is responsible for any and all deductibles and any costs not covered by insurance. The township has no responsibility whatsoever to pay any deductible or any costs in connection with the services of the provider, according to the text.

If the signatures are not on the document, a factual hearing is scheduled before Lycoming County President Judge Eric R. Linhardt on the company’s preliminary injunction request prepared by Attorney Marc F. Lovecchio, of McCormick Law Firm, scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Friday in Court Room 1.