'There Because They Care'
By SHANNON CRABTREE

Not all of El Campo's emergency responders get paid for protecting the community and its highway travelers, but they still rate among the best in the state.

"We're There Because We Care" is the motto of the El Campo Emergency Medical Services Department, but it's a philosophy which has been adopted by police officers as well as volunteer firefighters.

"We have dedicated people who live in the community and are a part of it," EMS Director Steve Appling said.

The El Campo Police Department staffs 25 officers to ensure citizen and visitor safety, working in conjunction with the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Wharton County Sheriff's Department.

The men and women in blue are likely to be the first responder to any emergency within the city limits.

But when lives are at stake, the EMS and 56 members of the volunteer fire department won't be more than seconds behind.

All El Campo ambulances can operate as Mobile Intensive Care Units - the highest level of care available short of placing a doctor on board.

The trained paramedics coordinate with El Campo Memorial Hospital for minor hurts and ailments as well as the trauma experts in Houston. When needed, a helicopter ambulance can be summoned.

El Campo EMS founder, the late Herman Novak, was inducted into the Texas EMS Hall of Fame and is credited with helping thousands earn their basic emergency medical training throughout Texas.

The state of Texas honored Appling as the Administrator of the Year in 2001.

Most full-time members of El Campo EMS have more than a decade's worth of experience in treating patients under the most dire of circumstances.

El Campo's firefighting volunteers also rate among the best in the state and nation.

Long-time department president Patrick Hlavaty was honored as the 2005 top volunteer firefighter in the nation by the National Volunteer Fire Council.

Volunteer departments throughout the state receiving funding from Emergency Services Districts can give a nod to retired El Campo fireman and 1970 El Campo Citizen of the Year

Les Collins.

He helped Wharton County create the first rural fire district in the state - a tax-collecting funding mechanism for volunteer departments. That service later was morphed into the more broad-reaching ESDs.

The El Campo department typically sends six members to the week-long Texas A&M "Fire School" for volunteers each July - not as students, but as instructors.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of Texas firefighting volunteers have learned their skills in battling blazes and rope rescue techniques from El Campo department members.

And now the department is developing its own $1.2 million training facility.

The El Campo Police Department was founded in 1946. Chief Jim Elliott is just the third man to head the department, which can stand firm on its reputation for maintaining law and order.

There have been murders in El Campo, of course, but the rate is well below a one a year average.

A well-organized narcotics division stays active to ensure drug dealers don't stay on the streets long.

"I've always thought that El Campo was special," Chief Elliott told the Leader-News. "Neighbors with can-do attitudes work to keep neighbors safe. It's been that way since I got here in the '70s, and I image that's the way it started."