Antonie Barrett hosts meeting of firefighters and members of the public Wednesday night after it was announced that several firefighters have been told they are losing their jobs. Photo by Mel Toadivne

Frustration, anger and even desperation were emotions felt Wednesday night at a hastily called meeting of citizens of Lehigh to talk about the layoffs of firefighters because of the announcement last week by County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson. Property values have dropped nearly 50 percent and that means a 50 percent reduction in tax revenue to operate the fire district.

The meeting was in the large meeting room of the Microtel Suites and Inn on Business Way. It was called by Lehigh citizen Antonie Barrett. He and some others said they sent out “hundreds of emails” to the people of Lehigh to address the loss of firefighters who were told they had six weeks left to work. And another 30 will be given their pink slips in the weeks ahead.

Very few Lehigh civilian residents showed up to the meeting. And only one Lehigh Acres community leader attended. Frank LaRosa, an elected official of the Lee Memorial Health Systems Board, and a member of the Lehigh Acres Community Planning Corp. (LACPC), said he didn’t know of a magic bullet to fix the problem. But he suggested that firefighters and other contact their county leaders and at one point, he even suggested a busload taking their message to Washington to draw attention to Lehigh Acres’ plight.

At first, many of the firefighters who have been told they won’t have a job in a few weeks, kept asking what could be done and they pressed Barrett for an answer.

All Barrett could say was that firefighters must put pressure on county leaders to find the money to keep the Lehigh Acres Fire Dept. operating smoothly.

Barrett said many people were going to carry signs this Friday at major intersections in Lehigh to make local citizens aware of what is about to happen to the fire department. Several asked what would that accomplish.

Nobody from the fire board attended the meeting; however, Chief Don Adams showed up in uniform and answered many of the questions put to him.

Although some in the audience were blaming others for the dilemma, especially the fire board, Adams said it was nobody’s fault.

“We are in tough economic times. The value of homes here has dropped drastically and that is what has caused this to happen,” Adams said.

Some firefighters who have been told their jobs are ending said they don’t know where to find work and some said they were afraid they would lose their homes to foreclosure and some wondered how they would feed their families.

But over and over again, many asked why people in Lehigh didn’t show up for the meeting.

Some voiced concern over the expected raise in their homeowners taxes once insurance companies discover the huge reduction in firefighters in Lehigh. Some said the increase in taxes was a better choice than paying more for insurance.

The fire board is financed by taxes from homeowners in the District. Currently, the tax rate is 3 mills per thousand dollars of value.

The board can vote to raise taxes to 3 mills, but that won’t be a drop in the bucket to take care of the ailing financial problems facing the fire district.

The current millage is 2.79. All the scenarios presented by the chief were on the basis of raising the millage to 3 which the board can vote to do. However, to go anything above 3 mill would need a voter referendum and the most the commissioners could ask for from voters is 3.5 mil.

The Chief Adams told the group it could coast as much as $160,000 to have a referendum of voters in Lehigh. When asked how many mills it would take, Adams replied “six or seven mills.”

LaRosa noted that people in Lehigh are not known for voting for more taxes.

It was suggested that the fire district borrow money from a fund collected by county officials from the unincorporated areas of Lee County.

Many expressed anger that the county commissioners, except for Brian Bigelow and Frank Mann, voted Tuesday to purchase land off of Daniels Parkway to build a new stadium for the Boston Red Sox.

Sonny Haas urged firefighters and citizens to go to Commissioner Frank Mann and others and show up in force to let the Commission know Lehigh needs help. Haas, who lives in Lehigh, has registered to run against Brian Bigelow in the next county election.

The two-hour meeting ended without any answers.

“Telling someone they wont’ have a job is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do,” Chief Adams told The Citizen.

“I know this affects not only the people of Lehigh but the lives of the many who are going to lose their jobs and I can’t give them an answer as what can be done to stop this from happening,” he said in an interview The Citizen.

He said thanks to reserves, the fire district is trying to get by with as little layoffs as possible. It’s doing things like keeping lights off to save money. He said a utility bill at a fire station could be as much as $1,200 a month. Adams noted that he had been criticized for creating an account of reserves. “But that is helping us some now,” he said.

Barrett at one point at the beginning of the meeting made a suggestion that those who were laid off might consider becoming volunteers. That brought out clashes in the audience and shouts and Barrett backed off from such suggestions.

One woman said even talking about volunteers was a step backwards.

“We need to move forward,” she shouted.

Adams noted that next year some are predicting that property values will go down even more in Lehigh and unless money is raised in some way, more layoffs would likely occur.

The group was told to show up en masse at the next special budget meeting to be at the East Lee County High School on June 23 at 6 p.m. in the auditorium.

LaRossa told the group to bring their friends and neighbors and let the fire board know that someone needs to approach the county and ask for assistance. The fire board holds its next regularly scheduled monthly meeting on June 17 at 4 p.m. at Veterans Park Center, but it won’t be about the budget problems even though it may be brought up.