With representatives from McCulloch County and the Melvin City Council on hand, the Brady City Council has on their agenda for Tuesday night a discussion of providing EMS services to Melvin.
At last week’s McCulloch County Commissioners’ Court meeting, representatives of Melvin City Council, County Commissioners and members of the public had a lengthy discussion regarding the current situation involving EMS services for Melvin.
On the agenda for the City Council is consideration of an Emergency Inter-Local agreement with the City of Melvin to assure the community that EMS services will be provided while more permanent arrangements can be made.
The issue for the cities of Brady and Melvin is that Brady declinesw to use City taxpayer moneyh to pay Melvin’s cost for providing EMS services. Currently, the City provides EMS service to all areas of the County, with McCulloch County paying the City the net cost for providing the overall services that are sent into the County.
However, since Melvin is an incorporated city on its own, it is not included in the overall payment being made by the County. According to Brady officials, that situation has left the City of Melvin owing approximately $15,000 for services in a prior year. Throughout their discussions, the Cities of Brady and Melvin have not reached an inter-local agreement. Melvin, in the interim, has refused to agree that it should pay the fee and contends that it is also unable to pay.
The Brady City Council issued an ultimatum that if the $15,000 was not paid by March 28, Brady would discontinue EMS service to the City of Melvin.
At the meeting of the County Commissioners last week, Melvin officials pleaded that the County provide some assurance that EMS service would be provided while Melvin continued to pursue an agreement with Brady. However, County Judge, Frank Trull, pointed out that since Melvin is an incorporated city, it must arrive at its own inter-local agreement with the City of Brady. The County, he said, has no role in their negotiations.
The EMS issue was placed on the Brady Council agenda at the request of Melvin officials in order for them to request the Emergency Inter-Local agreement directly to the Brady Council.
Representatives from the McCulloch County Commissioners Court, Melvin City Council and the public are expected to attend to voice their views on the issue.
The Brady Council meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:00pm.
