WASHINGTON CO. COMMISSIONERS APPROVE LAND LEASE AT LAKE SOMERVILLE FOR PLANNED EMS STATION

  

Washington County has entered into a lease agreement for land intended for use as an EMS paramedic rescue station at Lake Somerville.

Washington County Commissioners voted unanimously this (Tuesday) morning to approve a five-year agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), granting the county permission to build, operate and maintain an EMS station and helipad on 1.5 acres located near Overlook Park Road and LBJ Drive.

EMS Director Kevin Deramus said the impact of an EMS station at the lake would be “tremendous”, greatly speeding up response times to calls at the lake and the northern part of the county.

 

The land being leased to the county comes from Sherri and Solon Carver, through their own lease with the USACE.  Deramus credited them and Lake Manager Russell Meier as key partners for this project.  The agreement approved by commissioners only pertains to the land for the EMS station, not the building itself.

Deramus explained that this lease comes at no monetary cost to the county, whose only form of payment needed will be maintaining the property.

 

Deramus noted that the remote EMS stations in Burton, Chappell Hill and Old Washington were all built using donations, Texas Ambulance Supplemental Payment (TASP) funding or a combination of both.

While Commissioner Joy Fuchs voted in favor of the land lease, she said the county needs to look closely at what source of funding is used to build the EMS station when the time comes.  She said she is not against the project altogether, but given the current state of the economy, she wants to make sure infrastructure such as roads are addressed and see how EMS’ new air ambulance agreement with Metro Aviation works out.

Also in court today, commissioners:

• Approved the creation of Washington County Reinvestment Zone #2 requested by Double R Brand Foods, LLC for commercial tax phase-in incentive on an 18.175 acre tract located at 11700 Highway 290 West, just outside of Burton, and designating the property as qualifying for tax phase-in.
• Approved the placement of Farm House Lane, a 0.4 mile road in The Farm Houses of Pleasant Hill subdivision, Section 2 into the one year maintenance period, thus reducing the original bond amount by 50 percent.