HAYS COUNTY, Texas — Parts of Hays County could be without ambulance services if a special election proposition on the ballot doesn't pass.

  • Several areas are not in an Emergency Services District
  • “In Favor” vote would annex some areas into ESD #9
  • “No” vote means ambulances will no longer respond to those areas

Mountain City, Mustang Ridge, Creedmoor, and parts of the ETJs of Uhland, Austin, and Dripping Springs are currently not in an Emergency Services District. According to the ballot, an "in favor" vote on Tuesday would mean these areas would be annexed into ESD #9 and would be subject to paying that taxing entity for ambulance services. A "no" vote would essentially mean ambulances would no longer respond to calls in these areas. Areas already in ESD #9 will also have to vote if they're in favor of annexation.

San Marcos Hays County EMS Chief David Smith said he doesn't want to see these areas get left out.

"Our biggest thing is we want to do what's right for our patients and we've been serving this area since 1983,” Smith said. “We're just trying to clean things up and get everybody on the same page and bring people in the contract. Just so as a company, you know, we can have a legal responsibility to provide services and that's important for us."

While Mountain City is one of the areas in Hays County that does not have EMS coverage under a government body, ambulances have continued to run due to an interlocal agreement between San Marcos Hays County EMS.

"In the state of Texas, without an ESD, there's never been, that we can find, a direct law that says 'a government body must provide.' A lot of cities choose to do it on their own because it's a core service that they provide for health and human services," Smith said. "It's not really written into a county's requirements as a county government, but an ESD can be created for two reasons specifically for either fire protection, fighting fires, or for emergency medical services."

Mountain City has fire service from Hays County ESD #5 which will continue to respond, however, fire trucks aren't allowed to do a medical transport and only have a limited amount of supplies on board.

"It's not even so much just moving a person from point A to point B. It's the care. A lot of the times, for the majority of things that people are going to experience, we're going to start the same kind of care, they're going to an emergency room, at your house or in route to the hospital," Smith said. "And by having that care started that much earlier, even if it is a 10-minute ride or 15-minute ride to the hospital, your care has already begun. You're already being treated for signs and symptoms, and a lot of times that can make the difference between a good outcome and a bad outcome."

Mountain City Mayor Ralph McClendon said paying for ambulance services without being in an ESD has eaten into the city fund.

"Mountain City doesn't have a lot of sales tax revenue. At this time, and so we're at a little disadvantage from other larger cities that have the commercial properties and so on," McClendon said. "It's challenging, because we've cut back on some of the city services that we've done. And the last two years, we've pulled this money from our city savings to do that. That's not something that we can continue to do as we go to pay for the ambulance services at the new rate."

McClendon said if the vote doesn't pass, the new rate for service would cause property taxes to have to go up.

"The last two years, we've paid $25,000 a year. Now, it would cost about half of the property taxes that we collect. We collect about $90,000 a year, and the ESD #9 cost will be about $45,000. So we'd have to increase our property taxes 50 percent,” said McClendon. “So, it would be a little bit tough to do. So this is a mechanism to provide ambulance services that the citizens can get through the taxing entity of ESD #9."

McClendon said if the vote doesn't pass, the city would need to figure out why and go from there.

"Do our citizens really not want ambulance services or do they just not want to be subject to another taxing entity?" McClendon said. "Anytime you're in this role and you're responsible for the citizens, you want the best for them and you want to provide the best services, and the welfare of our folks. We've got, I think the average age here is about 45, 46. But we also have kids throughout the neighborhood and stuff. You'd think if there was an accident or something that happened, you want them to be taken care of."

And ultimately, forgoing ambulance service altogether is something Chief Smith said he doesn't want to see.

"We don't want anybody to be left out," Smith said. "And that's why we've been out talking to people trying to encourage them and educate them, 'hey this is something important that you need to do, not only for you and your families but your friends your neighbors and everybody else to kind of bring the service into a whole so we can move forward together.'"

For a look at the Hays County sample ballot and where to vote on Election Day, click here.