Collin County residents who don’t live in cities will be asked whether the county should create an emergency services district (ESD) to provide fire protection, financed by taxes on their property.
Following a Monday, July 28, hearing in McKinney, Collin County Commissioners voted 5-0 to put the issue on the Tuesday, Nov. 4, general election ballot.
The commissioners were acting on a petition to create ESD-1 to serve residents in the 75.5 square miles of unincorporated area.
Since October 2013, the county has paid fire departments in 22 cities a total of $950,000 to provide emergency service to rural residents living outside the cities.
Melissa dropped their contract last year and the cities of Princeton, McKinney, Wylie and Farmersville have filed notice of termination effective Oct. 1 of this year, saying the county was not paying them enough to make runs into their extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ).
However, County Judge Chris Hill said recently that McKinney had decided to continue service to rural residents for another year. And the Princeton City Council voted July 28 to extend service through November of this year.
If approved by voters in November, the newly formed ESD will be governed by a board of five directors appointed by the county.

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