PRESS RELEASE NOTICES

MEDINACOUNTY EMERGENCY SERVICES DISTRICT NO. 4
PRESS RELEASE
August 15, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Medina CountyEmergency Services District No. 4 (“District”) has proposed a 2024 Tax Rate of 7.85 cents per $100 valuation – a 57% increase in the tax rate. The District is the grassroots governmental entity that provides your emergency medical services (“EMS”), specifically ambulance services. The District covers approximately 33 square miles and provides EMS to the southeast portion of Medina County, including the City of Devine and the City of Natalia.
 

The District’s Board of Emergency Services Commissioners (“Board”), your neighbors and the governing body of the District – who will also pay this same tax this year – have many good reasons for this proposed tax rate. The District is taking control of the provision of EMS and will nolonger use a contractor to provide those services. Initially, emergency medical services were provided directly by the District, which later contracted with a third party provider to provide these vital services. Due to the increased costs of the contract as well as services that could not be enhanced without a major increase in costs, the District decided to again directly provide your ambulance services. This decision was not taken lightly and is the only way to cost-effectively provide EMS, and will also improve and enhance your ambulance services.
 

Of course, this requires additional expense to purchase ambulances, retain certified emergency medical personnel to provide these services, retain a Medical Director, improve training of personnel, and increase and enhance the level of ambulance services provided to the District’s citizens. Asreported recently, “. . . ambulances must be bought or rented, supplies purchased, employees hired, accounting programs purchased, and employee benefits set up.” Currently, the District has only one full-time ambulance available for emergency calls running from its station in Devine. To address this gap in emergency medical services, the District is also obtaining land in the City of Natalia on which to construct a new station to serve this area directly instead of from Devine.
 

This new station, ambulance, and crew will greatly improve the level of EMS being provided to you and your fellow citizens of the District. This will allow for two ambulances and crews to be available 24 hours aday, seven days a week. These ambulances will be Mobile Intensive Care Units staffed with emergency medical technicians and paramedics to greatly improve the current level of EMS. It will also allow for additional staffing to provide ambulance services when the District’s other ambulances are out of service on an emergency call or transporting patients to hospitals in the San Antonio area.
 

Again, this decision by the Board was not made lightly, but with the deliberate, thoughtful goal of improving EMS and providing the best, seamless care for you and your neighbors.
 

Based on previouscitizen input over the past year, the Board believes this plan to enhance and improve EMS in the District is not only very popular – but necessary. While it does require additional funding to accomplish, the citizens of the District have supported the Board’s decision. The District’s maximum taxrate is 10 cents per $100 valuation, which equates to $100 a year in taxes on a $100,000.00 home. Last year, theDistrict’s tax rate was 5 cents. If the proposed tax rate of 7.85 cents is adopted at the Board’s meeting on August 20, 2024, the District’s tax rate will be $78.50 for a $100,000.00 home.
 

The District willhold a public hearing on this proposed tax rate and to adopt its 2024 Tax Rate on August 20, 2024 at 6:30 p.m., 206 Dixon Drive, Devine, Texas 78016.
 

As stated by theDistrict’s president, Tony Martin, “The citizens of Medina County Emergency Services District No. 4 have spoken, and need this additional funding to have the best emergency medical services possible.”
 

For further information, please contact:
Tony Martin, President
Medina County Emergency Services District No. 4
206 Dixon Drive
Devine, Texas 78016
president@medinacountyesd4.org