The mayor of Elgin said the city’s petition to be annexed into Bastrop County Emergency Services District No. 3 appears to have reached its signature goal, a step officials say would let the city seek additional ambulance coverage.

Stacey Osborne, interim communications director, described the petition process and the purpose of the annexation: “An ESD 3, by the way, in case you don't know about that, that's the Bastrop County emergency services district number 3. And we had been doing well, we had been working with the community, to get signatures for a petition. And that petition, if it passes, if if we get enough signatures, will go to the ESD board, and then they will consider annexing us into that service district so we can get more ambulances.”

Why it matters: annexation into an emergency services district would give the city access to services governed by that district, in this case described by speakers as additional ambulance resources. The petition must be validated and then considered by the ESD board before any change in service occurs.

Officials did not provide a final validated signature count on the podcast; the mayor said, “it seems like we met our goal,” and expected confirmation by the time the episode aired. The next formal step described by city hosts is submission of the petition to the ESD board for its consideration; no board action or vote was reported in the podcast.

Discussion versus decision: city hosts described community outreach and a petition submission process (discussion and action initiated). They did not report that the ESD board had acted, nor did they report any binding vote by Elgin officials to change service boundaries. The outcome therefore remains contingent on validation and the ESD board’s review.

Officials and staff said they will provide further updates to residents once signatures are confirmed and any formal action by the ESD board is known.