A public hearing took place last week on the development of an Emergency Service District in Bergheim, and more than 30 residents and Bergheim VFD volunteers filled the commissioners’ court with mixed messages.
The residents of Bergheim successfully have petitioned the county to have a proposition on the November ballot to form an Emergency Service District established to cover the Bergheim Volunteer Fire Department’s Service area. Three hundred signatures were required to call for the Kendall County Commissioners to add the proposition.
This is the first big significant step the volunteer fire department had made toward the item appearing on the November election ballot in a more than year-long process of trying to get an ESD formed in the Bergheim area.
“If you’d asked me 10 years ago if I ever thought we’d be in the position we are now at the Bergheim Fire Department, I’d say, ‘No way,’” said Bergheim VFD Chief Adam Hawkins, who has been the chief for six years and a volunteer firefighter for 20 years. “In fact, when I head Bergheim Fire Department was going to be a fire department, I said, ‘Why?’ … As of today, the 11th of April for 2022 we’ve already responded to 153 runs. We probably have another 20 or 25 runs we should’ve responded to, in my opinion, that we were not dispatched for.”
Hawkins said the call volume has more than doubled in four years. This was a point resident and county employee Rick Tobolka contested, saying very few of the historical structure fire calls across the county have been in Bergheim.
“I will tell you right now Kendall County provides an excellent service when it comes to EMS, and the volunteers have done a great job, but there’s way more than structure fires that we do,” Hawkins said.
He explained the VFD responds to non-major vehicle accidents – including extraction of victims from vehicles and patient care – gas leaks, lift assists, grass fires and even changing out smoke detectors batteries for residents who can’t get on a ladder.
One resident sought a budget to review to determine whether the development of an ESD would offer benefit to outweigh the increased taxation to Bergheim residents. However, Hawkins said it’s difficult to develop a budget when an ESD board has not been appointed, and, thus, a tax rate has not been assessed.
ESDs are an individually recognized political subdivision that can be developed by a public vote after a petition with 100 signatures is presented to the county. The independent districts have a board of commissioners who establish an ad valorem tax rate — which, by state law, cannot exceed 10 cents per $100 of taxable valuation — and can collect part of county sales taxes in their district. The ESD commissioners also would be the overarching entity for all emergency services incorporated into the district and would approve budgets and expenditures.
ESDs are created to fund fire protection services, emergency medical services or sometimes both. At this time, Kendall County has primarily looked at creating an ESD to fund fire protection services.
In all, the majority of the residents who attended the meeting seemed to be in support of the ESD creation and urged commissioners to bring the matter to the public for a vote. The commissioners intend to conduct another public hearing in May to work out the potential tax impacts and revenue pulls under varying tax rates to help the public better understand just how much a new ESD could fund for Bergheim fire services.
While there was overwhelming support from Bergheim residents for the ESD election, there are some issues other residents across the county may want to consider. Early discussions with the county volunteer fire departments and commissioners suggested a countywide ESD may be the best option.
Ken Campbell, an attorney specializing in the creation of ESDs, warned officials last year that breaking the county into separate ESDs can sometimes lead to a money grab leaving the last district with the least funding.
Campbell warned against having sections of the county haphazardly developed into ESDs independent of each other without advanced planning because the last district to form will most likely end up with little revenue in ad valorem taxes to support the district. Citing Travis County as an example where there are 13 ESDs, Campbell said all the previous districts will have taken “what was good” by the time the final district is developed.
In fact, Campbell estimated the Sisterdale Volunteer Fire Department would bring in a measly $44,000 a year in ad valorem taxes if it were to develop its own ESD based on its current service area. With the Bergheim ESD expected simply to bring in additional funds without losing out on any county tax dollars – as Hawkins noted the residents will still be paying county taxes and thus entitled to county funds – the ESD would only improve the service area regardless of the tax rate imposed.
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