Austin City Council is scheduled to take action June 8 on an interlocal agreement between the Austin Fire Department and Travis County Emergency Service District 4, which, if approved, would merge ESD 4 into the city’s department over the next year. According to the proposed agreement, AFD will provide service out of ESD 4’s existing fire stations, while ESD 4 firefighters that meet the standards set by AFD will be added to the department's workforce. ESD 4 would however continue to operate as a tax-collecting entity, with revenues going to the city of Austin, the agreement states. In a memo to City Council, AFD Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr said annexation over the past 40 years has broken ESD 4 into five islands around the city of Austin. As a result of the change in the ESD’s tax base and geography, ESD 4 is unable to provide fire service to a majority of its territory under the current structure, she said. ESD 4 presently provides firefighting services to unincorporated areas of the county, including the Four Points areas of Westminster Glen Estates, Glenlake and Long Canyon; neighborhoods surrounding McNeil High School; Canyon Creek; Spicewood Springs Road; Springdale Road; and Austin Colony near Bastrop. ESD 4 Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to enter the interlocal agreement at a meeting May 23. “We are pleased an agreement could be reached and do very much appreciate the efforts of [the city staff] and the Austin Fire Department to make such an agreement possible,” ESD 4 President Peter Torgrimson said in a letter to City Council. If approved by City Council, ESD 4 firefighters would go through AFD fire training through the summer, and transition into the department beginning Oct. 1.