HARDIN COUNTY, Texas — Hardin County officials are working to address the need for more emergency medical services in the county.
Five of the county’s emergency service districts depend on private companies, including the Acadian Ambulance, for help. This means most county districts do not have their own ambulances.
County leaders are already looking for a solution. However, officials said it is going to come down to money to get more ambulances and provide more training.
The Lumberton and Sour Lake districts already have medical services in place for when residents need an ambulance. Two crews from Hardin County ESD #5 are ready to respond to the community's needs.
Their set-up could become a model for other districts.
"ESD 5, we're the oldest, continuous operating EMS in the region, including Houston,” Hardin County ESD #5 Chief Glenn Withers said. “We've been here for 60 years. We try to be a mentor to those people and try to show them our business model."
Withers said $500,000 of their $700,000 budget goes toward emergency medical services. The reason behind this is because of the 900 emergency calls they received in 2021, only 64 were for fires.
“I think it’s far more important than fire,” Withers said. “To me, ESD is responsible for the community’s needs, and fire is just a small part of that."
Hardin County Judge Wayne McDaniel pointed out the community's need for more medical services are growing. Judge McDaniel said only two out of the seven ESD's in the county can provide ambulance response to emergency calls.
"Any government service we have, as the population grows, it puts more demand on those services,” Judge McDaniel said. "I would say each ESD has gotten by over the years, but as the population grows so does the level of care and level of service that needs to be provided."
Getting those services in place requires cash up front.
“Like you said, its going to take money, and I can't speak on behalf of the commissioners on what we would do in that regard," Judge McDaniel said. "I can tell you that I would be interested if someone needed a little money to get it started. I think we can do something like that."
Chief Withers said said the Sour Lake district is always in need of more money.
"Incidents are increasing over time," Withers said. "The need is growing. Sour Lake is growing. Hardin county is growing, and those needs are only going to get worse."
Judge McDaniel said district presidents will discuss options at their own board meetings, and they will all reconvene at a later date to decide on the plan moving forward.
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