Emergency professionals in Blanco County Emergency Services District 2 have been very busy, Chief Ben Oakley told board members at their June 16 meeting.

In addition to a surge in COVID-19 cases, Oakley said that regular calls have returned to a normal pace now that the state has started to re-open.

“Everything is back to where it was before with things re-opened,” he said. “We’re seeing all of our normal call volume…I think one of the biggest changes on the EMS side in the past month, is our trauma volume is remarkably increased. We’re starting to see very, very severe traffic accidents and things like that.”

The additional wave of COVID-19 cases has kept emergency personnel much busier than normal.

“It’s keeping us very busy right now,” Oakley said. “We’re kind of at a critical time after Memorial Day and after essentially re-opening Texas all the way, so people are basically not practicing any of the recommendations needed to mitigate it. What we feared would happen is essentially happening this week, before our eyes.”

Oakley told board members that hospital admissions for coronavirus have increased in the region, from just over 10 a day two weeks ago to more than 20 a day last week.

Testing for COVID-19 in Blanco County has also greatly increased.

“Typically we were testing about 10, 11, 12 people a week,” Oakley said. (Last week), we’re doing about 25 a day. These are people who are actually sick or exposed. That’s a remarkable increase.”

Cases have greatly increased in the region, which has put a strain on resources, Oakley said.

“Neighboring counties, which were getting a couple cases, are now getting hundreds a day. Unfortunately, at a local level, we’re kind of following suit,” he said.

The board received an application from Matt Herden to become a citizen advisor to ESD2. Citizen advisors are ways to get the public involved, said ESD2 president Ann Hall. The board approved a process several years ago to have three citizen advisors, she said.

Herden expressed interest in becoming an advisor last year, Hall said, but they thought it would be a conflict of interest since his wife, Martha, was Blanco mayor at the time. She has since resigned as mayor, and Matt Herden has now submitted an application to be an advisor.

Hall said she contacted the applicant and asked him to attend a meeting or two in order to meet with board members and learn more about ESD2 to decide if he’s interested. It will also allow him to ask questions to the board members, and the board members to ask him questions, Hall said.

“This is a good way to have people learn,” she said.

The board approved resolutions to allow ESD2 to request participation in the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Cooperative Purchasing Program and to certify that ESD2 is in compliance with security awareness training requirements of the Texas Government Code.

The board held a lengthy budget discussion, but no action was taken. The ESD2 board next meets at 3 p.m. Tuesday, July 21.