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CITY COUNCIL
City Council recognized Elgin’s need for improved Emergency Medical Services during last week’s meeting, but remained apprehensive about a potential new service district.
The proposed Bastrop County Emergency Services District No. 3 is looking to get in front of local voters with a new dedicated district for EMS. According to proponents, its creation would improve emergency response times, bring additional ambulances and increase medical capabilities with “rapid response” and “real results,” albeit a complicated issue to dissect.
“In my opinion, we have sub-standard service now all over, and it’s definitely something that needs to grow and be better managed and increase the level of services,” City Manager Thomas Mattis said. “This is potentially a very big issue for the city, and an issue that could have a lot of impact and certainly costs.”
According to Mattis, who recently met with petitioner representatives, the district stated it would immediately go to the maximum tax rate allowable for an ESD. This would impact taxes for every property owner in the county.
Elgin’s unique jurisdictional boundaries can also create general confusion amongst residents, according to the city manager, with all agencies being independent and using different jurisdictional lines.
“Because of our jurisdictional situation, because we have parts of the city of Elgin that are in Travis County, this issue, if approved, would only serve Bastrop County people,” Mattis added.
Further complicating the decision, because of the way the ESD is proposing to be set up county-wide, county commissioners would appoint all of its managing board members.
“They certainly have a plan, eventually to have 11 stations positioned all over the county, but there’s no promise that we’d get a station out here, which I think is problematic,” Mattis said. “It’s a very complicated issue. Part of the frustration we have though is the petitioners have already filed the petition with the county judge, so the clock is already ticking.”
Mattis and Mayor Theresa McShan agreed that the best approach is to form a committee of council members to meet with the petitioners, as well as county commissioners, to talk through concerns and bring a recommendation back before the Council.
“Confidence level in ESDs in Elgin right now is probably not at its highest. If we really didn’t need to improve the service, the answer would be pretty easy, but we do,” added the city manager. “There is no question we need in this county better EMS, so we don’t disagree with that. It’s an important issue and something we need to take on, but I just wish we didn’t have this timing pressure on us.”
