ESD#1 Planning for Future Growth

By Gloria Way

  Chambers County Emergency Services District #1 (ESD #1) held its monthly meeting last week. The common thread of discussion among the five board commissioners was being prepared to handle the anticipated growth in the Winnie Stowell area.

  An agenda item that prompted a lot of discussion was item #8 – discuss and take action on engaging a Community Needs Assessment consultant. This item was put on the agenda after there was discussion the last couple of board meetings about the possible purchase of a ladder truck for the district. Winnie Stowell Volunteer Fire Department (WSVFD) Fire Chief Greg Hollaway had asked the board to purchase a ladder truck for the district. The cost of the ladder truck is about $1.5 million. Several board members asked if there was a need for a ladder truck. The board agreed to investigate hiring a community needs assessment consultant. At last week’s meeting, Attorney Hubert Oxford told the board that the cost for a needs assessment would cost between $40,000 and $52,381.00. Hollaway angrily snapped back and said, “You (referring to the board and attorney) never listen to us (referring to him and the ESD#1 administrator Michelle Hardy). We can tell you what the needs are. You don’t have to waste the money on a consultant. We know the needs, but you never listen to us.” Even though the agenda item was tabled to be discussed next board meeting, the general consensus of the board is before the board would consider purchasing a $1.5 million piece of equipment, the public must first be convinced that there is a need for such an expensive item, and a community needs assessment will help determine the need or not.

  Hardy brought up to the board the need to strategically plan for growth. She said, “Our county is growing 3 to 5% /year. We need to discuss the possibility of purchasing land to build a new station. Even if you decide to purchase a ladder truck, there is no space in our current building to accommodate it. We need to train/hire people to operate it. Do we need more trucks? We need to determine if we need to hire more firefighters. We need to talk about the possibility of merging WSVFD with the WS EMS. There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed in the short term to be prepared long term.”

  The discussion then turned to fire hydrants. There has always been blurred lines between who is responsible for fire hydrants. I spoke with David Hoyt, operations manager for Trinity Bay Conservation District (TBCD), and he confirmed that TBCD is responsible for installing, providing water for, repairing and maintaining the district’s fire hydrants. Hoyt also said that the Chambers County Fire Marshall is ultimately responsible for determining how many hydrants are needed and where they should be placed.

  Agenda item #9 read “discuss and take-action on hiring Texas Hydrant Services to map, inspect, and repair fire hydrants within the district. Hardy informed the board that there are 175 hydrants in the district (per TBCD). The cost of inspecting each hydrant is $20/hydrant. The board passed item #9. It must be noted that the $20 inspection fee does not include any maintenance or repair.