Comal County, Texas

The county's taxpayers are going to have to ante up more than $1,300 a month beginning Jan. 1 to provide fire and emergency medical service to 76 homes west of New Braunfels.
The homes are located in an area west of Krueger Canyon Road between the city of New Braunfels and the boundaries of Emergency Service District 6, which provides fire and emergency medical response to Bracken and Garden Ridge through contracts with the Bracken Volunteer Fire Department and Schertz EMS.
Most of the homes fall in the district of Precinct 3 Commissioner Greg Parker. The remainder are in Precinct 2 Commissioner Jay Millikin's district.
Millikin refers to the area as "no man's land" because, while outside the city of New Braunfels in that city's Extraterritorial Jurisdiction, it also isn't part of ESD 6 because when its boundaries were drawn, they did not include any of the ETJ.
In 1989, the Legislature passed a law creating the state's rural fire protection districts, giving them authority to set a property tax of 3 cents per $100 to pay for fire response. In 2003, the state converted all rural fire protection districts. Residents of the area voted in June 1989 not to become part of the fire district, but the district still provided emergency response in the area because Comal County paid the fire districts $40,000 a year.
Over the years, the county has gradually phased out those subsidies because the districts had taxing authority, and commissioners — prodded by Millikin — came to the belief that taxpayers in other areas of the county should not pay for services provided only to a particular area.
The last county payments to ESD 6 run out Dec. 31, and the ESD notified the county it could not ask its taxpayers to subsidize service outside its borders.
Millikin put an item on the agenda seeking approval for a budget amendment to pay ESD 6 $4,000 per quarter — $16,000 a year — to continue to fund fire and EMS service in the area next year until hearings and an election can be held on the question of joining the district.
Speaking to commissioners, Bob Kern of the Bracken Volunteer Fire Department said he felt the election failed in 1989 because residents knew then they would get service whether they paid for it or not.
"One question they asked me in '89 was, 'What would happen if we vote no? Would we still get fire service?' I had to answer 'yes,'" Kern said.
That would be different now, he said, because the county has made it clear it would be unwilling to ask all of its taxpayers to pay for the service for just a few who aren't footing the bill for themselves.
County Judge Danny Scheel expressed the concerns of the entire court — the moral implications of leaving citizens unprotected.
"Bob, what you're telling me is, if I live on the west side of Krueger Canyon Road and have a heart attack, you're not going to come?"
Kern said help would be on the way, nonetheless, because it's the right thing to do.
"That's not going to happen," Kern said. "But we no longer have a contract with the county. It isn't Bracken Volunteer Fire Department's intention to leave them unprotected, but we need to be compensated. They need to be responsible."
Millikin and Parker said they needed the county to fund response until the process could be worked through.
"The pure facts of life are the county isn't going to leave them unprotected," Millikin said. "Hopefully, they'll see the wisdom of funding their own protection rather than the rest of county taxpayers doing it on their behalf. We're not talking about a major financial burden, but it's inappropriate for the ESD, Bracken Fire department or Schertz EMS to fund that. The county will do it until those who get the coverage are paying for it like everywhere else in the county."

Article courtesy of Herald-Zeitung, by Ron Malony

CONTACT: Commissioner Jay Millikin
ph: (830) 221-1100
E-Mail

Home I Comprehensive Main Page I Departments I Services I Phone Book I Notices I Contact Us I Map