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Leon County Judge Byron Ryder fears that residents won't have an ambulance during a serious emergency.
But for some, the greater worry is a new tax -- a proposed maximum of 10 cents on every $100 of property value -- that would fund such a service.
Voters in the communities of Buffalo, Flo and Oakwood will vote Saturday on whether to create an emergency services district, which would ensure that ambulance service continues. Nearby Palestine Regional Hospital has quit running ambulances there after 13 years.
"If you've got a $100,000 home, it's $100," Ryder said. "It's a moral issue. If you come upon someone on the side of the road, and if you could save their life for $100, aren't you going to pull it out and give it to them?"
Opponents of the measure say the tax would force people with higher property values to pay more.
"If you went to a local store and bought a can of Coca-Cola, and it cost you 50 cents, and it cost me $100 and another guy $200, and others don't pay anything, would that be fair?" said James Coker, who lives about three miles outside of Flo. "We're all for ambulance service. We need it. But we think everyone ... should pay the same price."
For about seven years, Palestine Regional Hospital officials have warned that the ambulance service was losing money, Ryder said. The only money it received was from patients, who often don't or can't pay.
Local officials have attempted to create an emergency services district twice in recent years. Both times, voters shot the ballot measures down, the last time by just 13 votes, in 2006. The Palestine hospital continued its service.
"People wanted something for free," said Chief Shaine Reeder of the Buffalo Volunteer Fire Department. "What it all boils down to is money. In small-town rural America, you can't run an ambulance service without some kind of a taxing district."
In April, Palestine Regional Hospital stopped providing the service to the area after a 90-day warning. College Station-based Legacy EMS, which provides non-emergency service in Bryan and College Station, has been running an ambulance in Buffalo since then, charging only the patients it serves.
If voters approve the measure Saturday, Legacy will continue service until a permanent provider is chosen. A company official said Legacy hoped to become that provider. If the measure fails, Legacy will end its service Sunday.
The closest hospital to Buffalo is about 20 miles north, in Fairfield. For major emergencies, such as head trauma or a heart attack, residents might have to travel to Bryan. A helicopter is a possibility, but it might not always be available and it will cost the patient significantly more, officials said.
Some critics of the ballot measure want the county to pay for ambulance service. But that's unlikely, officials said, because three other areas in Leon County already set up their own emergency services districts after a countywide proposal failed in 1993. It wouldn't be fair to the county's residents to have them subsidize the northeast area that didn't set up its own district, Ryder said.
Flo resident Howard Myers worked hard to persuade voters to support that countywide measure, which failed by 279 votes, he said, adding that rabid anti-tax sentiment exists among many of his neighbors, some of whom he would call friends.
"If there would be people who would have those tea parties, it would be them," the 79-year-old said, referring to recent anti-tax rallies held across the country. "But they'd use other people's tea."
The measure on Saturday's ballot would generate an estimated $545,000 a year, which would pay for the ambulance service and three volunteer fire departments.
There are 276 emergency services districts in the state, including four in Brazos County that end at the Bryan and College Station city limits, said Jimmy Woodard, emergency service district coordinator at the state's Office of Rural Community Affairs.
"It's very rare to finally end up without an ambulance service," he said.
Bettye Davis, 71, worries what will happen if the measure fails. Her health, she said, is deteriorating, and diabetes, arthritis and hypertension have sneaked up on her. But she's most concerned about her grandson, Craig, who suffers seizures for unknown reasons. The 4-year-old has been rushed to the hospital with the help of an ambulance several times, she said.
She doesn't have access to a car.
"Lord, I just don't know what we'll do without an ambulance," she said.
