Burnet to station ambulance and EMTs in northeast Burnet County
Burnet Fire Chief Mark Ingram (left) speaks to the Burnet City Council about the proposed ESD No. 10 partnership during a regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 11. Staff photo by Caden Senn
The city of Burnet recently approved a partnership with one of the county’s several emergency services districts, ESD No. 10, to provide ambulance services, emergency personnel, and equipment within the district’s service area.
The partnership will run from Jan. 1-Sept. 30, 2027, with the district paying the city a total of $325,000 for its services over three installments. The city will in turn station an ambulance full-time at the district’s nearby emergency services facility, staff personnel, and cover several operational costs and services.
“We’ve been working on this project for almost two years,” ESD No. 10 President James Shamard told the Burnet City Council during a meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 11. “(Burnet) already serves that area, but the time it takes to get an ambulance out there for critical patients… is almost not survivable. (This agreement) is one of the few things that is truly going to make the difference between life and death.”
The city had already serviced the area encompassing ESD No. 10, however it has not been able to station an ambulance there full-time due to limited funding and resources. This agreement would place one of the city’s several units at the district’s emergency services facility, located at 2285 U.S. 183 just south of Briggs, full-time.
Burnet Fire Chief Mark Ingram further stressed the importance of the agreement during the meeting.
“We’ve done a lot of back and forth, and this is something that has been needed out there for quite some time,” he said.
Chief Ingram added that the department had an ambulance stationed in the area of ESD No. 10 on Tuesday, highlighting the drastic decrease in response times that would occur once the partnership begins.
“We actually have an ambulance out there right now,” he said. “We had a call… that would normally take us about 35 or 40 minutes to get to, and we were on the scene in 13 minutes.”
What is an ESD?
An ESD provides emergency services to a defined district by collecting a small tax from residents within its boundaries, up to 10 cents per $100 property valuation, to be used exclusively for fire protection, emergency medical services, or both.
An ESD is put on a ballot for residents to approve when a petition containing at least 100 signatures from voters who own property in the district is filed with the county.
ESD No. 10 encompasses approximately 200 square miles in northeastern Burnet County, covering Briggs, Oakalla, and the surrounding area. For more information and to see a map of the district, visit the ESD No. 10 webpage here.