Voters in Nueces County will decide whether to expand emergency service districts to bring fire and EMS coverage to rural areas long without protection
NUECES COUNTY, Texas — Since the state created Emergency Service Districts, or ESDs, in 1987, Nueces County has established five of them. But ESD #3 President Gary Eulenfeld said some unincorporated parts of the county were never included, leaving pockets of residents without dedicated coverage.
“So most ESDs were formed by consolidating existing fire municipalities — volunteer fire departments, rural fire districts, those sort of grouped and lumped together into what are now known as ESDs,” Eulenfeld said. “Well, invariably, there were some areas that have never had any protection. So they weren’t folded into the new formation of ESDs, and they’ve been sitting there basically unprotected all this time.”
Officials often refer to those unprotected zones as “no man’s land.” Proposition A on the November ballot would address those gaps by expanding district boundaries to include rural communities currently outside any ESD.
One of the biggest changes would involve ESD 1, which plans to annex the London area. Captain Kevin Ramon with the Annaville Fire Department, which is part of ESD 1, said the expansion would ensure those residents have reliable access to fire and EMS services.
“We’re looking to take care of the people out towards the London area that did not have designated fire and EMS protection,” Ramon said. “That is the entire purpose of this election — making sure that people have help, and they have it coming fast.”
Ramon added that quicker response times can make the difference between life and death.
“If someone’s 20 miles away, and they have a relative that’s in cardiac arrest, the science shows that if someone’s not there within a few minutes, there’s a very low certainty of survivability,” he said. “Whether it’s a medical emergency or a fire response, annexation means having help in their backyard so that it’s there quick.”
Proposition A would not raise property taxes for residents already living within an existing ESD. Those newly added to a district would see an increase of no more than 10 cents per $100 of property value.
Early voting started Oct. 21 and Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5.