Although the rapid residential and commercial development in Spring and Klein has resulted in a boost to the economy, growth also provides challenges for fire departments and emergency medical service providers in the area as they address the rising number of emergencies.
“Everything we do [does] not necessarily result from the growth of the Exxon[Mobil] and Springwoods Village projects,” said Scott Schoonover, deputy fire chief for the Spring Fire Department. “But the areas that are around it that are expanding in general plus having the growth of those two projects coming into our area [adds to the issue].”
More people, more service calls
Each fire and medical service provider in Spring and Klein is addressing the additional growth differently through personnel and facility changes.
“I almost wouldn’t call it a challenge as [much as] adapting,” Schoonover said of the growth. “Over the past five years, we’ve gone from a partial combination [department] with just having part-time firefighters supplementing the volunteers to incorporating full-time firefighters. We’re adding more stations. We’re updating our fleet of apparatus.”
Sources: Cypress Creek EMS, fire departments/Community Impact Newspaper[/caption]
Sources: Cypress Creek EMS, fire departments/Community Impact Newspaper[/caption]
SFD continues work on its ninth station, which is set to be completed in November or December, Schoon-over said. The facility—which will be a joint station with Cypress Creek EMS—will house a new fire engine and ladder truck.
The station will be the 13th station within the Cypress Creek EMS 177-square-mile service area and will house a 24-hour ambulance, CCEMS Executive Director Brad England said. Despite growth in the region, CCEMS does not anticipate needing any more permanent stations through 2020, England said. However Station Nos. 1, 3 and 52 may need to be renovated in the next few years.
“Some of our stations are 20-25 years old, so that’s going to be our next thing,” he said. “We don’t have to spend $1 million to build an ambulance station. Now it’s going to be let’s gut the thing, redo it.”
Klein Volunteer Fire Department has already begun preliminary work on its new station in the Gleannloch area at Crescent Clover and Champion Forest drives to address growth on the north side of its service area, said Steve Falkner, commissioner for Emergency Services District No. 16, which contracts with the KVFD.
Falkner said the station could break ground in early 2016 and take about a year to complete. It could house three or four bays for vehicles.
“The Gleannloch area needs help and [help is needed] for the [Grand] Parkway, so that will be servicing the [Grand] Parkway,” he said of the new station. “One of the considerations right now is construction material costs are going up astronomically. It’s going up like a percent per month. That’s in the back of our minds.”
The two smaller fire departments in the Spring area—Champions and Ponderosa—are also addressing new development in their service areas. Champions Fire Department Chief Dan Shelor said the department is seeing some industrial and commercial growth on the southwest region of its service area near Cutten Road.
“Because it’s not residential it doesn’t create a large volume, but we don’t have a lot of companies moving in,” Shelor said. “Some of the areas over there don’t have hydrants, so we’ve had to adjust calls to bring in tanker trunks.”
Sources: Cypress Creek EMS, fire departments/Community Impact Newspaper[/caption]
Sales tax revenue
Fire and medical services in the unincorporated areas of Spring and Klein are funded through a combination of property taxes, sales taxes and fundraisers.
Voters approved a 1 cent sales tax in May for ESD No. 16. Falkner said the district will begin to receive funding from the sales tax in October and could begin receiving the revenue in late November or early December.
Funded solely by property tax revenue for the time being, Falkner said the district hopes to receive an additional $1 million a year or more from sales tax. He said the district hopes the money will help it provide 24/7 service at its stations. KVFD does not house volunteers overnight and on weekends, although Station 31 could begin offering 24/7 service in July thanks to the recent addition of an on-site trailer.
“We anticipate when [the] Grand Parkway is fully operational, our [motor vehicle incident] call volume will creep up."
- Bryan Romero, senior caption at Klein Volunteer Fire Department
“It’s going to help us to improve the service to the community,” he said. “How we do that is still being discussed, but there’s no question that the service to the community will improve because of the sales tax going through.”
Sales tax revenue has been instrumental in the funding of the Ponderosa Fire Department along FM 1960, fire Chief Fred Windisch said. Although limited purpose annexation agreements between utility districts and the city of Houston have taken much of the area’s sales tax revenue, Windisch said sales tax revenue has exceeded the department’s expectations with about $1.1 million in annual revenue.
“It has been amazing to me what sales tax can do to assist a local emergency service agency,” he said.
Windisch said PFD plans to replace Station No. 3—built in 1993—with construction expected to begin Oct. 1. The station could open in June 2016. He said the department will pledge sales tax revenue to make the payments, which will give PFD a better interest rate.
Sales tax revenue has also been integral to the Spring Fire Department, which receives just over half of its annual revenue from sales taxes, Schoonover said. Thanks to increases in sales tax revenue, he said the fire department has been able to lower the property tax rate the last few years.
[polldaddy poll=8970840]CCEMS receives no sales tax revenue, England said. It receives 51 percent of its revenue from property taxes and the remainder from the billing of patients, classes it offers and through fundraisers like the FM 1960 St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which raised $40,000 this year.
Other obstacles
Many of the emergency service providers in the region rely on volunteers and part-time employees. Although the region is growing, finding and keeping volunteers is a steep task.
Despite population growth in the region, Windisch said there has been little growth in the volunteer pool because of the demands on volunteer firefighters today.
“People are trying to make a living,” he said. “It’s very few and far between the number of volunteers we have [who] are willing to commit what we need.”
Of the 200-plus members of the KVFD, 176 members are volunteers, Falkner said. Training to become a volunteer for KVFD can discourage potential volunteers, he said.
“It’s five months in a recruit class, and it will cover everything from A to Z,” said Bryan Romero, senior captain at Station No. 36.
Local fire and medical service providers also face a rise in traffic concerns on Spring and Klein roadways. Emergency service officials listed motor vehicle incidents—in addition to medical calls—as among the most common incidents within their service areas.
Officials cited I-45, Hwy. 249 and FM 1960 as roadways with high rates of wrecks. England said CCEMS tracks the statistics of incidents and is prepared for accidents at certain locations.
“We know the geographic areas that get hit the hardest, so we’re going to put an ambulance closer to that,” he said. “[FM] 1960 and [I-]45 at 3:30 or 4 in the afternoon, there’s going to be a wreck there, so we’re going to send somebody that way just to make sure.”
Romero said KVFD is expecting more accidents in the region when the Grand Parkway segments F-1, F-2 and G open by the end of the year.
“We anticipate when [the] Grand Parkway is fully operational, our [motor vehicle incident] call volume will creep up,” he said.
