Budget challenge: Mineral Wells Fire/EMS chief describes officer despair in budget outlay

Jun. 9—MINERAL WELLS — A chief's descriptions of staff despair on the Mineral Wells Fire/EMS Department dominated the city council's second round of budget discussions on Tuesday.

Chief Ryan Dunn's presentation prompted a couple of calls from council members to seek more support from Palo Pinto County.

Another council member asked to see Dunn's budget numbers if the ambulance service were eliminated.

Blaming a ballooning call volume and low pay for a staffing challenge in his department, a visibly red-faced Dunn at one point said he might be all-in.

"We're getting to the point where we're going to get somebody hurt," he said. "Before I'll get somebody hurt, I'll walk away from here. I mean that, absolutely."

Dunn said the department has answered 1,550 calls from January through May. That's six more than the same span last year, which at the time was an all-time high.

"So, we're on track to beat last year's all-time call volume," he told the council, adding that with three vacant positions on a 30-member staff he tries fruitlessly to keep nine crew members working three shifts at two stations.

"But most of the time, it's eight," Dunn added. "Since 2021, we've had an attrition rate of 41 percent. and in the last five years, it's 71 percent."

Dunn said the city crews answer calls in a 120-square-mile swath of eastern Palo Pinto County in addition to inside Mineral Wells' 20-square miles.

"Nobody runs our kind of call volume for such a small community," he said. "What I'm starting to see is our people are becoming burned out. We're asking them to do more and more without increasing our staffing. ... I've had three or four people in my office crying."

Dunn said he expected to be six crew members short in the next coming week.

He blamed the staffing problems at least in part on pay. An entry level firefighter/paramedic is paid $54,000 in Mineral Wells and can fetch $70,000 from Sacred Cross EMS, the ambulance service for the Emergency Services District No. 1 which brings EMS to all but southwest Palo Pinto County and Mineral Wells.

Mention of the emergency services district, which funds a dozen volunteer fire departments on a 2.66-cent property tax, drew council attention.

The department funds its EMS contract with Sacred Cross with a 1.5-cent sales tax levied in unincorporated parts of the county — not Mineral Wells.

Place 1 Councilman Kyle Kelley eventually said he has spoken with people in other cities that have eliminated their advanced ambulance services staffed by paramedics.

He pondered the cost savings of doing that and leasing the city's ambulance bays " ...and having just firefighters."

Dunn agreed city residents do support the emergency services district.

"I think that conversation at least should be broached," he said. "And I think it has."

Mayor Pro Tem Doyle Light, a retired 30-year member of the city fire/EMS department, said the city should broach emergency services funding with the county.

"The conversation absolutely needs to take place with Palo Pinto County," Light said, calling elimination of the city ambulance service "a formidable suggestion."

"The city of Mineral Wells has been carrying Palo Pinto County in the fire and EMS business for three decades," Light said. "And we can't do it anymore."

County Judge Shane Long later said dialogue between the county and Mineral Wells has been common in recent years and he welcomes talks on EMS.

"We have made a point, ever since I came in as county judge five years ago, to work with all of our municipalities including Mineral Wells," he said. "And I believe we have a very open and active dialogue with the city and the county at this time. And I would continue building those relationships, and I look forward to the continued cooperation with the city and the county that we have established in the last few years."

Light also brought up Palo Pinto General Hospital, which operates partly on a property tax, set just shy of 30.5 cents per $100 property valuation.

"I think they've been missing from the conversation," Light said, before calling the hospital "the potential glue" in that conversation. "But we've got to quit carrying the county. The city of Mineral Wells cannot carry Palo Pinto County with fire and EMS anymore, and it's going to be a tough conversation."

Mayor Regan Johnson asked staff to equip her for negotiating with the county.

"I want information in my hands when I go to the county," she said, specifying she meant numbers showing what the city contributes and receives in its county relationship.

The mayor said the rising call volume and shrinking staff represented "a human expense and a taxpayer expense."

"It just doesn't make sense," she said.

And while the Fire/EMS discussion ate the lion's share of Tuesday's budget session, City Manager Dean Sullivan noted that a June 20 budget discussion is scheduled to discuss the city ambulance service.

Budget requests to the council Tuesday also included new Police Chief Tim Denison's plea the city's animal shelter have an animal control officer, to free his law enforcement staff of that role.

Denison also requested funding for a license plate reader to photograph traffic incoming on major arteries.

"The camera's set up so when you're entering the city it's capturing the rear license plate," he said.

Other budget requests included security cameras for the library and Southeast Park. The park has experienced some vandalism, Parks and Recreation Superintendent Carrie Stevenson reported, and the cameras there now need replacement.

Boyce-Ditto Library Manager Kathy Spencer asked for security cameras for her parking lot, along with $6,820 in window tint for the children's area and a small meeting room.

And Public Works Superintendent Chris Thibault asked to replace a casket-lowering machine for city cemeteries.

"It takes two people just to keep it in gear so it doesn't drop someone in the hole," he said.