As Taylor grows, the need for expanded fire service protection is growing as well.
At the July 27 regular meeting, the Taylor City Council approved a resolution to extend fire service provision within the next 60 days to an eight-square mile area of the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction that is not currently covered by Williamson County Emergency Services District No. 10.
“The area around Taylor is one of the last remaining areas where the unincorporated portions are not covered by the ESD,” said Taylor Fire Department Chief Daniel Baum. “An ESD is an emergency service district, a government entity, kind of like a school district where they can collect property tax sales tax, et cetera. They have that provision. So, following the pattern of the western parts of the county, it’s likely that that’s inevitable with the continued growth.”
In May, after what many consider an acrimonious election, voters in the ETJ west of State Highway 95 approved a petition for ESD 10 to annex a boot-shaped territory to become the first-responder for emergency service, which had been previously covered by Avery Pickett Volunteer Fire Department, a nearly 120-year-old organization that had been rocked by scandal in recent years after former Fire Chief Billy Hughes was charged with illegally pocketing more than $300,000 in donations.
Baum said the property the city will extend fire services to will include areas where it already has a future annexation agreement in place, or where the city is providing new roads, sewer and water lines, or other infrastructure, or where “likely or proposed development (will occur) in the near term,” he said.
Additionally, Baum said the move would make the boundaries of the fire service protection area smoother.
“(It) just provides for a more contiguous service boundary and eliminates what I call donut holes where the city surrounds the property on all sides, but another agency provides service in that middle,” Baum said. “It adds inefficiency and sometimes confusion to make sure the right agency is dispatched for that call... It fills in the awkward boundaries of the city and makes it a little bit cleaner shape.”
At the meeting, At-large Councilman Dwayne Ariola expressed concern that the department might not have enough personnel yet to accommodate an expanded service area, despite the agency being currently considered for a $2.2 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response program, which could potentially provide the city with funds for nine additional positions for three years to meet minimum staffing standards of the National Fire Protection Association.
“I agree with your plan from a firefighter point of view, but that puts more stress on your current limits and this budget, I know we have the SAFER grant, but should it not be approved, what is your plan B?” Ariola said.
City Manager Brian LaBorde responded that the city is putting money aside for additional personnel regardless of the outcome of the grant application.
“We will bank that money, so it builds,” LaBorde said. “The idea is then either we ultimately continue to apply, or we have sufficient funding to hire the amount of people, but it’s an incremental approach instead of all at once.”
In addition, Baum said the department would currently be able to manage the extra load regardless.
“With this area, this eight-square miles, since it’s primarily agricultural, low residential, we don’t foresee it having much of an impact on call volume, one or two calls a month maybe,” Baum said. “At some point in the future, that may change, but presumably at that point they will be in the city limits, and we will be getting the full services and contributing the full amounts as being parts of the city.”
