12 Nov Beeville City Council Renews Drought Emergency, Approves City Hall Change Orders and Hears Ambulance Funding Request

Beeville’s City Council renewed the city’s drought emergency, signed off on added costs for two construction projects and heard a funding pitch from Beeville Angel Care Ambulance at its regular meeting Nov. 9, according to the Beeville Bee-Picayune.

On the drought, council members unanimously adopted a fresh emergency proclamation covering dry conditions and pressure on the city’s water supply. Gabriela Hernandez, the assistant city manager and city secretary, said a declaration was made in August but was not updated in September or October, so the council had to put the designation back in place.

The council also voted unanimously for three change orders totaling $84,169.21 with ACE United Contracting on the Beeville Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis Temporary Wellhead System, a stopgap plant that treats drinking water. The contractor is laying a pipeline between West First Street and the Cleveland site. Change Order 2, at $19,900, pays for a concrete pad to hold up piping where the West First Street line ends. A third order, at $11,700, covers digging and soil compaction for a relocated equipment pad and a fresh standby generator. Change Order 4, at $52,569.21, pays for pipe connections on a storage tank that stands 30 feet tall along West First Street, the last piece needed to finish the system.

On the new City Hall project, the council unanimously signed off on two change orders with Victory Building Team that add up to $38,183.29. Change Order 58 ($14,477.45) and Change Order 60 ($23,705.84) deal with wiring for emergency communications and with electronic access controls to separate municipal offices from the neighboring police department.

Victory Building Team representatives said the electrical work came about because earlier plans were not coordinated among prior personnel, the city’s police department and area emergency dispatch providers. Layout changes for the police department’s evidence and narcotics storage were approved previously, they said, but the design team did not add the matching door controls to the technology plans for the building.

Mayor Pro Tem Benny Puente, other council members and city staff voiced disappointment that the controls were left off the plans. Without keycard readers, officials said, workers upstairs would have to step away from their desks and trek down long hallways to let the public through secured doors. The contractor saved a few thousand dollars by dropping badge access from private interior offices while keeping keycard readers at the main secured entrances.

Council members noted that the project has hit 60 change orders. The contractor’s representatives said the target of a December finish will probably have to be pushed back so all systems can be installed correctly.

Representatives of Beeville Angel Care Ambulance said rising costs and heavy call volume are putting pressure on emergency medical service in the area. Vice President Mickie Treviño said the company’s two contract ambulances responded to 5,227 calls for emergency service in 2025, or about 436 a month. Under a contract dating to 2006, the company is paid $69,000 a month, split by the city and Bee County, which comes to about $828,000 a year for two Mobile Intensive Care Unit ambulances staffed around the clock.

Treviño said crews are overextended and that starting wages of $12 to $19 an hour make hiring difficult when commercial employers pay more. President Gabriel Aleman said malpractice insurance has tripled to almost $14,000 a month, the company recently bought five stretchers for $140,000, and its payroll runs about $40,000 every two weeks. He added that the company writes off between $1 million and $2 million a year treating patients who are uninsured or indigent across the county.

Aleman also pointed to non-emergency calls as a strain. Crews are often sent on minor requests for help and can be tied up 15 to 20 minutes while paramedics complete patient refusal forms, he said. Combined with long drives to outlying rural areas, along with a policy of sending two units to cardiac arrests, that can cause pending 911 calls to back up in the city.

Company leaders also gave the council a comparison with nearby systems that receive larger subsidies for fewer runs. Goliad pays $116,000 a month for two units that handle under 400 calls, Refugio pays $316,000 a month for three units, while Karnes County pays $460,000 a month for the same number.

The city’s contract is set to end in October 2027. Company officials asked to start negotiations early with leaders of both governments and to consider an added 1% increase on top of the usual 2.5% annual adjustment. Puente and fellow council members concurred that the city and Bee County should meet soon to review the agreement and keep emergency coverage steady.