A potential vote is sparking a heated debate over which agency could end up providing fire protection in the county — a long-established volunteer department or a tax-funded firehouse.
At issue is whether the Avery-Pickett Volunteer Fire Department in Taylor or the Williamson County Emergency Services District No. 10 will offer first-responder services now that some residents served by the volunteers say they would rather have the ESD assist them.
The area is outside the Taylor city limits in eastern Williamson County.
An ESD is a tax-supported entity created by a public vote to provide fire protection and emergency medical services in a designated area. Most volunteer fire departments, however, raise revenue through charitable donations and activities such as Bingo, and do not have a full-time paid staff.
The leadership of ESD No. 10 are mulling whether to put the issue on the ballot in a few months and have voters decide.
Not everyone at Avery-Pickett is thrilled by the prospect, which they say could mean the end of the century-old department.
John Shelton, Avery-Pickett assistant chief, said the petition is asking to have ESD No. 10 take control of Avery-Pickett’s entire service area. Some have called it a kind of annexation.
“It would end the life of a 118-year-old fire department,” he said.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Russ Boles said the ESD board is not violating any laws with the process to get the item on the ballot.
A vote could come this spring. “Everything they’re doing, they’re allowed to do,” he said. “There’s an area out there that’s not covered by an ESD. They said they’ve had people reach out to them, and they are considering putting it on the ballot in May.”
Since 2017, the Thrall and Coupland volunteer fire departments have had a contract with ESD No. 10 to provide first response, fire and rescue inside the district’s jurisdiction.
Thrall VFD Chief Mark Mollenburg said his Thrall and Coupland volunteer firefighters are transitioning to become members of ESD No. 10.
“The membership of Thrall and Coupland volunteer fire departments all transferred their membership to ESD No. 10,” he said. “We are operating now on what is generally referred to as a ESD Direct Service Provider.” Boles said Williamson County Commissioners Court does not have much say in the process, other than to appoint ESD board members. “ESD is its own political subdivision. I don’t particularly control them,” he said. “The court does appoint their board, but it’s really just a financial report back to the county.”
Boles said all of the ESDs in the county provide an audit to the court.
The ESD board can either vote to accept or deny the residents’ request to be placed on the ballot.
“ESD No. 10 is not trying to annex (Avery-Pickett),” Boles said. “All they are saying is if the people in that area want to have an election, and the election comes out that they want to be annexed by ESD, we will agree to do that.”
Mollenburg said the petition is not just specific to Taylor’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, but also includes the rural area outside of Taylor.
The Taylor Fire Department, with a full-time staff on the city payroll, serves Taylor’s city limits.
The petition was submitted at the last board meeting, and is currently in a 30-day waiting period. A decision is expected at the next meeting Feb. 14.
Shelton said a resident’s unfounded claim about an overly long response time to extinguish a structure fire could be the reason for the petition.
“We are looking through our records, and we haven’t found anything that can verify that,” he said.
He said Avery-Pickett has a faster response time than ESD No. 10 and adds the department does not run on tax dollars.
“Why would you want to pay taxes for a fire department that doesn’t respond as quick as the one that’s doing it for free?” Shelton said.
In a public meeting Jan. 11 in Beyersville, audience members said a lack of transparency within Avery-Pickett helped prompt the call for annexation petition.
“(Avery-Pickett) operates as a private business. No one knows when or how or how often they have board meetings,” Jeff Sciarretta, ESD No. 10 chaplain, who attended as a resident, at the meeting. “There is virtually zero public accountability.”
Shelton said Avery-Pickett is a nonprofit first-responder paid for with private funds.
Avery-Pickett does have a board, but he declined to release their names citing safety issues.
“The reason I’m not going to release that is because we’re being harassed,” he said.
Those calling to be added to the ESD’s jurisdiction need to remember there is financial cost, Shelton added.
“They are going to be taxed,” he said. “Once an ESD is formed, it can never be dissolved ... You’re giving your souls to these people essentially, allowing them to spend money at their will the way they want to without any sort of oversight.”
Shelton said he does not support the petition, and does not think it is the right move for the community.
“If they were going to create an ESD, the best option for the people in this community would be to create their own, not one that belongs to another city,” he said. “What these people would be doing is committing all of their tax money to Coupland and Thrall, not to the citizens who are protected in Avery-Pickett.”
Concerns from Avery-Pickett
Shelton said some concerns he’s heard about Avery-Pickett include the belief that his volunteers are not well trained.
“We know what we’re doing,” he said. “We have more rescue tools than the Taylor Fire Department and the ESD No. 10 fire department combined.”
He said this petition would cause the community to lose that resource. He said Avery-Pickett has a larger water truck, in addition to a rescue truck and the appropriate equipment for the truck, and six brush trucks.
“They are going to lose the abilities we possess,” he said. “Nobody, anywhere around here has near the resources that we do.”
Could Avery-Pickett and ESD No. 10 partner?
Mollenburg would not rule out a potential partnership between Avery-Pickett and ESD No. 10, but said the decision is up to the ESD board.
“Obviously, ESD No. 10 is the government entity that would be the authority having jurisdiction and how the service would be provided,” he said.
Shelton said it comes down to “best practices,” which he said Avery-Pickett follows.
“That’s a fire department’s term for doing what you should do,” Shelton said. “We get on the radio and we ask dispatch for the closest, nearest available unit.”
He explained that dispatchers contact departments in the area, and whomever is the closest and available will respond.
“Yes, we work with (ESD No. 10) sometimes, but we don’t openly request anyone. We ask for the closest available unit,” he said.
