Hospital, city, county coming together to provide fire, EMS to county

In what officials hailed as a historic and monumental occasion, the Ector County Hospital District Board, Odessa City Council and Ector County Commissioners approved an agreement to provide enhanced fire and emergency medical services to unincorporated areas of the county.

The meeting was held in the J’Nevelyn and Larry Melton Conference Center on the campus of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

The memorandum of understanding was approved by all three entities and the city signed a letter of intent to update its memorandum of understanding with Ector County.

Officials said this is just the first step in a long process.

Hospital board President Wallace Dunn said the biggest thing they need from the residents of Ector County is to vote in the Nov. 5 election.

Once the voters approve it, it will go to the state legislature, so the very earliest they are looking to start implementing the agreement is 2026, Dunn said.

He added that they did explore other alternatives before settling on this one.

Medical Center Hospital President and CEO Russell Tippin said the volunteers are an essential part of the plan. “The volunteers play a huge role.”

Odessa City Manager John Beckmeyer said this was a monumental day.

Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett agreed.

“Far too many folks are losing their lives out there because they’re losing time in that golden hour for cardiac arrest, or for falls, or for needless incidents that they should not either lose life, limb, property or anything else for because of not having professional services out there,” Fawcett said.

The idea got its start about a year ago when officials started having discussions with people in the unincorporated areas of the county.

Dunn said for many years people have said they would like to see greater collaboration among local government agencies. Community leaders also have asked for collaborative relationships between local hospitals.

The city will see a tax decrease of about 14 cents per $100 valuation and Ector County Hospital District taxes will increase to approximately 16 cents per $100 valuation.

Tippin said the hospital district’s effective tax rate is 8 cents per $100 valuation, which generates $22 million. The hospital district also currently gets about $50 million in sales tax. They are at 3/4 of a cent for sales tax and a quarter of that goes to economic development, so they wind up with half a cent.

The city’s current tax rate is .483791 per $100 valuation.

Beckmeyer said the best estimate of how much it’s costing the city to provide fire and EMS to the unincorporated areas is $9 to $15 million depending on the year and what goes on.

The city will need more personnel and equipment, Beckmeyer acknowledged.

The hospital district will collect and appropriate the funds and will not run the fire and EMS services, Tippin said.

City residents will benefit from a tax reduction. County residents will gain improved fire and EMS services through increased funding, according to information from the hospital district.

With the tax change, Ector County Hospital District will contribute to the fire and EMS funding.

Fawcett said depending on the year about 25 to 30 percent of OFR runs are taking place in the unincorporated areas.

Fawcett said he had discussions with people in the county about providing services out there.

“This was something that was one of the main topics that I discussed with them at all times because everybody knew somebody who had lost a loved one in an emergency that oftentimes could have changed if they had a permanent station out there,” Fawcett said.

“Our volunteers do an amazing job. OFR responds as quick as legally possible to there, but sometimes geography is geography and that’s just the nature of the beast. The support is overwhelming in my opinion from the folks that I’ve talked to. They have concerns, but whenever we talked about this is a basic function of government that is falling through the cracks because we don’t have an organization in charge of this and we haven’t had that relationship conversation with taxpayers that this is something that must be done.

Fawcett noted that this could bring residents’ homeowners insurance down.

Tippin said they will meet with people in the community and speak at civic groups, but residents can also call the hospital with any questions.