Residents urge county support for local fire protection; ESD petition to be discussed next week

Speakers from unincorporated parts of Collin County urged the commissioners to consider funding or policy options for fire protection after territory changes and emergency-service-district petitions.

Kevin Rohrer, who identified himself as a Farmersville resident, said many residents in unincorporated areas do not understand they lack county-provided fire protection and urged the county to consider using county revenues to help local fire departments rather than shift responsibility to emergency service districts (ESDs). "If the county could step up and say, 'Hey, some of this money we're making, we could distribute to the fire department,' then the cities could come back and say…we could drop our city taxes," Rohrer said. He noted the county’s property-value growth and described Farmersville as covering a large geographic area within the county.

Dan Schmoll, who said he lives near Branch/Princeton, said volunteer fire coverage has been lost in some areas as municipal services expanded. He suggested exploring alternative, low-cost fire‑prevention programs — for example, a county-supported fire-extinguisher refill or discount program — and urged commissioners to look for funding sources beyond creating a new tax. "We should look under every rock, I think, and see what we can do, and where funds could be found," Schmoll said.

The presiding judge told speakers the item was not on today’s agenda and that the court could only accept status reports, but that the ESD petition and the county's statutory response will appear on next week's agenda for a full policy discussion. Commissioners did not take action during the present meeting.