Van Zandt County leaders press EMS contractor on slow response times, demand ambulance posted in Precinct 2

Van Zandt County commissioners on July 1 pressed their contracted ambulance provider over response times and the absence of a contractually required ambulance in Precinct 2, a rural area commissioners said has been without a posted unit since the 2019 contract.

The issue matters because the county contract requires 90% of life‑threatening 911 responses to be within 14 minutes, 59 seconds; commissioners presented May 2025 performance data showing the county’s 90th‑percentile response was about 22 minutes and 23 seconds. That, a commissioner said, “is not in compliance with the contract under any circumstance.”

County officials spent more than an hour on the matter in a public workshop, hearing testimony from volunteer firefighters and from CHRISTUS Emergency Management Services officials. Dwayne Collins, a volunteer firefighter and member of the county committee that evaluated providers, said the service “appears to be lacking in meeting their obligations” and asked why…