A plea from the wife of a Lehigh firefighter

Click on this flyer to read. You may then also enlarge it even more. This flyer is being passed out to the community by Lehigh Acres firefighters and their families pleading for help to save their jobs.
To The Editor:
I am asking your readers to please read the stories online here at lehighacrescitizen.com and in the printed edition this week that comes out this afternoon and Wednesday morning about the layoffs at the Lehigh Acres Fire Dept. My husband, Anthony, has recently been given notice that he will be laid off by October 1, 2009. Between now and that date he, along with 60 others, will no longer be employed with the Lehigh Fire Department. It not only hits home for us, but it really affects all of us who live, work, and play in Lehigh Acres.
The district has given notice that 46 percent of their budget must go. To accomplish this they are laying off chiefs, firefighters, engineers, EMTs, paramedics, getting rid of our ambulance service, and possibly one of the new stations. The numbers are out and the cuts have already been made. This creates a huge hardship on Lehigh Acres.
Many may not know that anytime you dial 911 from Lehigh, it is your Lehigh Acres Fire / Rescue that responds. The men and women that work for our fire district are your first response workers. If that service is turned over to the county and run out of Fort Myers, you or your loved one could possibly wait more than 30 minutes for an ambulance and medical service. By getting rid of fire stations, we also risk waiting 10-20 minutes on a fire truck responding from a station that is further away from your burning structure fire, alarm activation, or other emergency. Without adequate ambulance services, the necessary fire stations to cover our entire territory, and the proper manning of our first response workers, the community will suffer, homes and businesses will be lost, and ultimately people will die.
What resident or business is going to want to move into our area or better yet who is going to want to stay in a place they don’t feel safe?
It’s easy to point fingers at the fire chief and Fire Board commissioners, and we should for not managing our money. It’s easy to point fingers at the county commissioners for us not seeing nearly one third of the money we pay in taxes come back to Lehigh Acres. It’s even easier to point fingers at our President for bailing out crooks and bankrupt / corrupt companies, but not helping the “low to middle income man” and “small businesses” as promised.
But in all honesty, we only have ourselves to blame for not pushing harder to incorporate our community, not getting out and voting for the people that run our community and our nation, and by simply not getting involved. We have allowed this injustice to happen, but we can stop it! We are all in this together! It is not a time to be negative, but to work together on how to solve this pressing issue.
Many of you and or your families are lifetime residents and/or work in Lehigh Acres, you know how great this place once was and how great it can be again. We need your support!
If we let this injustice happen to us in Lehigh Acres, it will affect county wide – teachers, law enforcement, anyone owning a small business? Don’t let it be you! It’s time for us to stand together and have a voice, power in numbers!
Protect yourself, protect our neighbors, protect our property, protect our businesses, protect our community!
Please help spread the word by copying this and emailing and passing to everyone you know.
Please plan on attending the Fire Commission Board’s special budget meeting on June 23 in the auditorium at East Lee County High School at 6 p.m., and the County Commission meeting also on June 23 in downtown Fort Myers at 5 p.m., if not put on the agenda for earlier. The Fire Board holds its regular monthly meeting at 4 p.m. on June 17 at the Veteertans Park Center meeting room. Don’t forget to wear red. Thanks for your prayers and continuous support! God Bless!
Robyn Anglickis Rocco
Lehigh Acres