BUTLER TWP — Township officials said the city’s interest in modifying a countywide mutual aid agreement for fire protection caught them by surprise.

Butler City Council members on Jan. 20 expressed a desire for municipalities to pay the city when the city fire department responds to an incident outside the city.

Council said the city’s paid fire department responded to 89 calls outside the city in 2014, 83 of which were to Butler Township. Meanwhile, city officials said the city’s department only requested help from the township’s volunteer departments twice.

Officials at the township commissioners meeting Wednesday night said that city officials never talked with the township about the issue before discussing it at a public meeting.

“We have yet to be contacted by the city,” said board Vice President Dave Zarnick.

City officials at their meeting discussed the possibility of requesting a fee from any municipalities for responses. The city preliminarily thought that dividing the department’s annual fire budget by the total number of calls would provide a fair price per response.

Last year the city department responded to more than 3,000 calls — most of which were medical calls — at a cost of about $573 per call.

Councilwoman Kathy Kline, who oversees the city’s department, said at the city’s meeting that off- duty firefighters often are called in for standby whenever the city responds to another municipality, costing the city overtime pay.

Township manager Ed Kirkwood said the city in the past was able to call in volunteer departments for standby.

Kirkwood said the 2003 collective bargaining agreement between the city and its department allowed for volunteers to be called into its station. He said that provision is no longer in place, and the city must call in its paid firefighters.

“They had the opportunity to call in volunteer firefighters in lieu of career firefighters,” Kirkwood said. “At some point that was taken out of the contract.”

Kirkwood also said the decision of who responds to calls is decided by fire chiefs.

He said the township’s three volunteer departments cannot respond to the city if the city doesn’t request their service.

“They can only respond when they’re called,” Kirkwood said.

Township officials also said many of the city’s responses into the township are right on the border of the two municipalities, citing Butler Memorial Hospital and the Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center as two notable locations.

The township said it also sends its police department into the city numerous times a year, most recently assisting with a sizable drug bust in the city.

“You never hear us complaining about that,” said Commissioner Sam Zurzolo.

But Zarnick did not rule out the possibility that the township would consider modifying the fire agreement.

“We’re open to sitting down and talking to the city about it,” he said.

Butler Mayor Tom Donaldson said this morning that city officials followed the appropriate process by discussing what should be done at their meeting first.

“We were discussing our end of it,” Donaldson said in an interview. “We don’t do anything behind closed doors.”

He expects that a meeting between the city and the township will be scheduled.

“We need to work with them,” Donaldson said.

While the township has received no official request for talks from the city, Kirkwood said he had a “very cordial” conversation with city Councilman Bill May.

Zarnick said he also spoke with Councilman Richard Schontz Jr., while City Fire Chief Nick Ban has spoken about the agreement with township Fire Marshal Larry Christy.

Zarnick also stressed there is not a feud between the township’s fire department and the city’s department, just that the township is disappointed in how city officials have dealt with the situation.