.jpg)
COLORADO COUNTY
EMS Director honors late founding member of ambulance corps
Colorado County Commissioners appointed a Veterans Service Officer for the county at their recent meeting this past Monday morning, Feb. 10.
Dallas Wayne Murphy, who previously lived in North Carolina, moved down to Colorado County to take the position as the county VSO. Murphy’s sister Charlotte currently lives in the county, and a visit Murphy made to see her during Thanksgiving was the factor that pushed him to make the decision after “praying about something” he could do to “help others.”
“I’m a Christian man and over the past couple of years or so, I’ve been praying about something I could do to help others,” said Murphy. “I didn’t know if it was a volunteer basis or helping veterans, I’m a nineyear veteran as well as a combat vet and all of this started coming into motion for me when my sister said she’d like to retire. Everything just started coming together. I came here on Thanksgiving to visit and make my final decision, everything’s fallen into place. It’s an honor to be here and be able to come and offer my services to all the veterans.” Colorado County Judge Ty Prause thanked Murphy for his service and his decision to make Colorado County his new home taking the position, citing how the role is not “easily filled.” Additionally, Colorado County EMS Director Michael Furrh spoke during public comments to give his condolences to Commissioner Gertson and highlight his mother, JoAnn Meitzen Gertson’s accomplishments within the county, citing all the groundwork she laid out for the EMS programs successes.
“She was a founding member of the Colorado county ambulance corps, volunteer ambulance corps back in the early 70s, 80s, 90s, when volunteers were still prevalent in EMS,” said Furrh. “There’s only 14 volunteer and true Volunteer Ambulance Services left in the state of Texas, it’s astounding Garwood is one of them. They all started with humble beginnings, like Miss Gertson and the crews back in the day did.”
Furrh highlighted an award Gertson received for dedicating over 1,000 hours in the first two years of the ambulance corps existence for free.
“If it weren’t for folks like her who did what she did and the group of people who started that handling service, we wouldn’t have what we do today,” said Furrh. “It’s very important to understand how far everything has come and the road that was paved by people like your (Commissioner Gerston) mom and the group of folks we know.”
Commissioners also received and accepted a donation deed on behalf of the county from Leonard Richter, wife Lisa Richter and Jonathan Barrett for an 0.1722-acre tract of land out of the Peyton Splane League.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Keith Neuendorff explained the reasoning for the donation and the specific location of the property.
“This is a little piece of property which is going to be on Richter Rd. right at the very end,” said Neuendorff. “They (Leonard, Lisa and Barrett) just want to get that out of their name. They’re going to divide everything between the kids and they want to donate it to Colorado County. We had it all surveyed up and everything looks good.”
The next Colorado County Commissioners court meeting will be held on Monday, Feb. 24 at 9 a. m.
