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By Anton Riecher
The Medina County Emergency Services District No. 2 board of commissioners voted unanimously Dec. 27 to put forward Chris Davis as a replacement for Homer E. Delgado, a board member who resigned in November.
On a motion by board member Jeff Howard, seconded by Chris McGuiart, the board voted to submit Davis’ name to the Medina County Commissioners Court for consideration to fill the vacancy.
“We don’t have people jumping through the door to serve on the ESD board,” board president Todd Summers said.
Video coverage of the entire ESD No. 2 meeting is posted on the Devine News YouTube channel at youtube.com/watch?v=u9p56RvcInE&t=22.
Davis, a real estate appraiser, currently serves on the Devine school board and has a son, Blaine, who belongs to the Devine Fire Department. Blaine is also enrolled in the fire department’s emergency medical technician (EMT) high school training program.
“The one other candidate willing to serve had to be turned down because he technically lives outside the boundaries of the district,” Summers said.
SALES TAX
In other business, the board discussed the steps necessary to get on the April election ballot with a proposal to obtain a share of local sales taxes as allowed under state law. ESD may collect sales tax, provided an election is held and voters approve the measure.
“I haven’t heard anything from our attorney, Ken Campbell, so I emailed him,” Summers said. “His response was ‘trying to get to it.’”
“’Sorry, but I have some clients with all-encompassing issues right now, beginning with the FBI and working down,’” Summers quoted Campbell as writing. Summer was quick to clarify that the FBI issue “has nothing to do with us.”
In Texas, 8.25 percent is the maximum allowed sales tax rate. The state collects 6.25 percent, leaving 2 percent available to eligible local jurisdictions, including ESDs. At present, the share that ESD No. 2 is entitled to is going unclaimed.
Summers said he is sure that Campbell realizes the tight timeline to educate the public in preparation for the April ballot.
“The thing is that we, as a board, cannot sell it,” Summers said. “If somebody asks us questions we can give them what we know about it. But we can’t sell it to the people. The fire department is in a different position. They’ve got a little more leeway in how they present it.”
Success will mean promoting the ballot initiative to the various charitable organizations such as the Lion’s Club and other groups to “put the word out and help people understand what it is.”
MAINTENANCE
Devine Fire Department Assistant Chief Patrick DuBose told the board that catching up on overdue maintenance is proving to be a drain on the department’s financial resources.
“Maintenance is costing us a lot of money,” DuBose said. “With previous administrations (maintenance) was not something that they were looking at. That’s why our accounts are down by a little bit.”
He noted that recent maintenance has found equipment operating with oil filters dated from 2017.
The fire department currently has a bank balance of $40,715 in its accounts. With the new fiscal year beginning in October, the department has only received $750 to date in grant money, DuBose said.
“We’ve only had three or four firefighters go to school for us to get grant reimbursements,” he said.
FINANCES
In her report, ESD No. 2 treasurer Nancy Pepper said the district has only collected about $46,000 or about 11 percent of its taxes for the new fiscal year. Expenses to date have been nearly $12,000 or about five percent of the expected tax revenue.
“They are really going to start coming in now,” Pepper said. “We should get quite a bit. We’ve already gotten quite a bit in December and in January we’ll get even more.”
The district’s operating funds total about $190,000 of which $100,000 is in a money market account drawing about $150 a month in interest. Interest and sinking for ESD No. 4 is at $37,000 and the fire station loan balance is $648,041, Pepper said.
Bills paid to date total $76,000, including $18,350 for the installation of a new emergency generator at the fire station. Board member Howard reported that the completing that installation will require a short power outage at the station, followed by another two to three weeks for further adjustments.
The generator must operate at a full load for at least four hours before installation is complete, he said.
The fire department plans to use tax exempt red or dyed diesel to operate the generator. However, application for a permit from the Texas Comptroller can only be made by the ESD as a government entity, not the fire department, DuBose said.
EMERGENCY STATS
Reporting on emergency runs, DuBose said the fire department logged 42 incidents in November with 31 personnel involved. Of those incidents, 14 were medical emergencies, eight involved fires, six involved accidents, four involved utility issues, three were hazardous materials emergencies such as leaking oil or spilled fuel, two unauthorized burns, one controlled burn and one was a public service event.
For the 2022 year to date report ending in November, the department reported 321 emergency runs compared to 502 runs during the same period the previous year.
“Our run volume is down which is a good thing despite having a busy grassfire season through the summer,” DuBose said.
Of those 321 emergency runs, 17 involved structure fires, 11 involved vehicle fires and 64 involved grassfires with nearly 400 acres scorched. One civilian fatality Oct. 6 in was included in the statistics, a morning trailer fire on Colonial Parkway near the cemetery.
“We brought out the Bexar County Fire Marshal’s office and did an investigation but everything was completely gone,” DuBose said. “By the time we got there it was almost completely down to the ground.”
EMT TRAINING
On the positive side, DuBose reported that the fire department’s high school EMT training program has enrolled nearly 40 students split between Devine and Hondo.
“We have Medina Valley High School and Natalia High School talking to (Fire Chief Greg Atkinson) about potentially doing it next year,” he said.
Beginning Jan. 7, the fire department will conduct adult EMT night classes on Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, DuBose said. To date 15 students have signed up for the classes paid for by the school districts.
“We are becoming a very big training facility for the community,” DuBose said. “People are just reaching out to us now.”

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Texas during the past week remained steady at 30,033, with 102 new deaths reported by the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University. The number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations rose slightly to 2,581, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

8,900 bused to Washington;
4,900 sent to New York City;
1,500 sent to Chicago;
630 sent to Philadelphia.

Abbott has drawn criticism after a bus from Texas dropped off more than 100 migrants in freezing weather near Vice President Kamala Harris’ official residence in Washington, D.C. An Austin American-Statesman report noted the state has bused nearly 16,000 migrants to so-called sanctuary cities. Abbott tweeted a breakdown of how many migrants have been bused to cities outside of Texas.
Thus far, 8,900 have been sent to Washington; 4,900 to New York City; more than 1,500 to Chicago; and more than 630 to Philadelphia. The governor has maintained in the past that the migrants have given permission to be bused North. The White House has called the move “a cruel, dangerous, and shameful stunt.”
“We’re providing relief to local communities overwhelmed by President Biden’s open border policies,” Abbott said.
The U.S. Supreme Court has so far stopped the Biden administration from eliminating Title 42, a federal rule enacted during by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow the U.S. to return asylum-seeking migrants to Mexico or their country of origin.

Massive flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines during the Christmas holiday week are prompting the federal government to look into why thousands of travelers were left stranded across the country, along with huge piles of luggage in airports served by the beleaguered airline.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said his agency would examine what caused Southwest’s widespread cancellations, which began as a massive polar storm gripped much of the country a few days before Christmas. The airline was able to resume normal operations on Friday as another holiday weekend approached. The airline canceled more than 15,700 flights since Dec. 22, according to The Dallas Morning News. Cancellations by other airlines were a fraction of that amount, according to published reports.
“Because what we’re seeing right now, from the system and the flights themselves to the inability to reach anybody on a customer service phone line, it is just completely unacceptable,” Buttigieg told CBS early Wednesday. The Senate Commerce Committee also plans to investigate.
Southwest does not use the hub-and-spoke system relied upon by other major carriers, instead relying on a point-to-point system. That means even where planes were available, often crews and pilots were stranded in other cities.
RRC launches probe into Atmos service issues
The Texas Railroad Commission has launched an investigation of Atmos Energy’s gas distribution system, which left some Texans without heat during freezing weather just before Christmas. The company reported low gas pressure in cities across North and Central Texas, leaving some customers without heat. On Dec. 23, the Texas Tribune reported, Atmos asked its 2 million Texas customers to conserve gas use by lowering thermostats, not using gas fireplaces and any gas-powered appliances.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed a letter ordering the railroad commission and the Texas attorney general’s office to investigate Atmos Energy’s “failure to prepare for the winter weather event last week.”
Leading up to and during the winter event, State of Texas agencies worked around the clock to mobilize resources and assist utilities in any way possible. At no time did Atmos Energy request assistance… It is apparent that Atmos Energy acted irresponsibly and was unprepared for the event,” the letter said in part.
TPWD opposes listing prairie chicken as endangered
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has reiterated its opposition to a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the lesser prairie chicken as endangered in some areas and threatened in others, citing “tremendous” voluntary collaboration with private landowners and industry to conserve the chicken’s habitat.
The federal designation will take place in January. It primarily affects Panhandle counties where the lesser prairie chicken is found.
“This decision jeopardizes decades of voluntary conservation efforts, increases regulatory burden and does not assure recovery of the species,” David, Yoskowitz, TPWD executive director, said.
$54 million in career, technical education grants
The Texas Workforce Commission has announced 152 grants totaling more than $54 million to various public community, state and technical colleges, as well as school district and charter schools across the state. The grants will be used to buy equipment to establish or expand programs that offer Texas students the opportunity to earn licenses, certificates, or post-secondary degrees in fields such as nursing, welding, automotive repair and dentistry.
“It’s important to identify high-demand jobs, but it’s critical to proactively commit resources to ensure Texans are ready to meet those workforce needs,” said TWC Chairman Bryan Daniel.

1ST Place: The Jaworowski family home is full of the most beautiful kind of Christmas Spirit – the kind where the whole community comes together to make Christmas special for a family going through a hard time. Mrs. Caitlin Jaworowski passed away this December after
a long battle with cancer, so friends, family and community all pitched in to create this wonderful
Winter Wonderland for her children. So the gold medal and a $500 gift card donated by DJ Carlson Memorial Bust n’ Burn will go to the Jaworowski family this year.
2nd place: The Ingleston family
has a sprawling display on Highway 173 heading toward Jourdanton. It has it all – color, animation and a manger scene at the center of it all. Towering alone is a huge 51-foot tall tree of lights topped with an angel. If you are lucky, you might see Santa here too. 3rd Place– With every Christmas
character lit up across their sprawling display, the Ruesch family home is truly magical – feels just like we were walking into Santa’s workshop.
“Most Magical” – Morris home. Live! Santa Claus himself
greeted children at the gate,