Photo by Blake Rasmussen

The Pflugerville Fire Department is facing staffing and equipment shortages at its stations.

Representatives from the city of Pflugerville and Travis County Emergency Services District No. 2 are seeking to bury past grievances and begin a new era of coexistence.

City Council and the ESD No. 2 board of directors respectively approved resolutions March 11 and March 13 that call for cooperation between the two entities regarding taxation and emergency services agreements. ESD No. 2 provides fire and medical first responder services to the city of Pflugerville and its surrounding unincorporated areas.

The resolutions represent an about-face from the recent tension that surfaced following ESD No. 2's Feb. 13 decision to call a May election requesting a sales tax increase in the district's unincorporated areas surrounding Pflugerville. Officials from the city and its economic development firm—the Pflugerville Community Development Corp.—opposed the election, claiming it would deny the PCDC funding for future economic development projects.

The city and ESD No. 2, however, have now stated they are willing to negotiate the use of the tax revenue—should voters approve increasing the local sales tax rate in the district's unincorporated areas to 2 percent.

"The City Council emphasized that as an elective body, we have the responsibility to be good stewards of tax dollars in regards to public safety," City Manager Brandon Wade said. "With this in mind, the City and ESD are working together to evaluate all possible solutions to the issues of funding, personnel and resources."

The sales tax election is being proposed as a partial solution to fix ESD No. 2's gaps in medical response services. Under its present service agreement, Travis County contracts with the city of Austin to station two ambulances in ESD No. 2's service areas. The county, however, is considering asking the city of Pflugerville to augment the more than $1 million annual cost of stationing those ambulance crews in Pflugerville.

ESD No. 2 officials said they would like to use the new sales tax revenue to hire and staff their own paramedic crews, which would likely be teamed with firefighters.

Travis County officials are also exploring the possibility of forming a countywide fire department to replace the ESD model that is prevalent in the areas surrounding Austin. Pflugerville and ESD No. 2 officials, however, say they are considering forming a unified fire and medical response model that could result in the creation of a municipal fire department. If created, the new department would likely also service the unincorporated areas of the district—such as the Wells Branch neighborhood—through interlocal agreements.

"At some point in time, this district and the city of Pflugerville will be one in the same, or at least very close partners," ESD No. 2 Fire Chief Ron Moellenberg said. "Movement to that end seems to make sense."