Rural Collin County residents have struggled to get fire and ambulance services. That’s a problem throughout in unincorporated parts of Texas.
But in Tuesday's election, a proposition to create an Emergency Service District in parts of the county that aren't annexed into a city or a town had attracted strong support.
With 85 of 91 voting centers reporting by early Wednesday, about 74.2% of rural Collin voters had cast their ballots in favor of the proposition and about 25.8% had voted against it.
The Emergency Service District, or ESD, will levy a tax on homes in unincorporated Collin County to help pay for fire and ambulance services in area.
Setting up the district could take some time, leaving a potential coverage gap in the meantime.
Currently, Collin County pays cities and towns to have their fire department answer 911 calls in neighboring unincorporated areas. The county’s budget for those services is $950,000.
Some cities have opted out of serving the unincorporated areas, saying they need more funds to meet the demand for services.
The following cities opted to have the unincorporated areas they serve included in the ESD. The town of New Hope also requested to include its city limits in the district.
- Blue Ridge
- Celina
- Farmersville
- Fate
- Josephine
- Lavon
- Lowry Crossing
- McKinney
- Melissa
- Murphy
- Nevada
- New Hope
- Parker
- Princeton
- Royse City
- Weston
- Wylie
Other cities didn’t consent to have their coverage area included in the district or didn’t respond when the county reached out about the ESD:
- Garland
- Allen
- Anna
- Fairview
- Frisco
- Hebron
- Lucas
- St. Paul
- Trenton
- Van Alstyne
What's next
Forming an ESD is a slow process. The Collin County commissioners have to appoint board members to manage the district and levy and collect taxes.
Emergency Services Districts can levy a property tax rate on homes in the district’s service area of no more than $0.10 per $100 of a property’s value of homes in its jurisdiction according to the Texas Association of Fire and Emergency Districts.
The funds the ESD would collect should increase funding for emergency services, Collin County administrator Yoon Kim told county commissioners at an August meeting.
“This is a tenfold increase to provide the fire protection,” Kim said.
But he said it would be at least a year before services could begin. Collin County Judge Chris
Hill said at an August commissioners’ court meeting he wants to maintain coverage in the meantime.
“Everyone who lives the county drives through it at some point or visits the unincorporated part of county at some points,” Hill said. “We just never know when we're going to need a first responder to come and help us. And it benefits everyone to know that we have county-wide coverage that's seamless.”
But, he said, it’s not up to the county alone — cities and towns would have to agree to continue coverage at the current level while the ESD was formed.
Jo Ann Graham, an unincorporated Collin County resident who helped petition the county to call for the ESD election, urged the county commissioners at a March meeting to adequately fund emergency protections for the unincorporated areas in the interim while the Emergency Services District process is ongoing.
“We cannot again wait 43 minutes for the Weston Fire Department to respond to a house fire or a serious car accident east of Melissa,” she said.
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