To The Editor:

Recently I paid for two scientific telephone polls taken in Lehigh Acres in regards to the Lehigh Acres Fire Dept.

We have all heard and read that the Lehigh Acres Fire Board commissioners have closed down Fire Station 105 on Bell Blvd. and are thinking of turning the Advance and Basic Life Support transport service (Ambulance service) over to Lee County.

What is totally amazing is that the polls show that the elected LAFD Commissioners are heading down the wrong path.

Poll one asked:

Should the Lehigh Acres Fire Dept. keep the ambulance service. Out of 125 randomly chosen residents in Lehigh Acres, 110 said yes they want to keep the LAFD ambulance service and 15 said no, hand it over to Lee County. That’s more than 81 percent for the LAFD ambulance service.

Just remember in 1976 money was raised locally in Lehigh Acres to get our first ambulance. We currently have five ambulances but only use three of

them.

But now the two union supported Lehigh Acres Fire Dept. Commissioners Jeff Berndt and Joel Guzman what to dismantle the Advance and Basic Life Support transport service and turn it over to the Lee County. Why? When 81 percent of the people what

the service.

The poll also asked:

Should the Lehigh Acres Fire Dept. union take a pay cut and use that savings to reopen Station 105 on Bell Blvd for the safety of the citizens of Lehigh

Acres. Out of 90 randomly chosen residents in Lehigh Acres, 67 said yes the union needs to take a pay cut and the saving should be used to reopen

Station 105. That’s a 2 to 1 ratio.

I challenge all the citizens of Lehigh Acres to get involved learn the facts before it’s too late.

Just remember it may be your family member waiting on an ambulance from Fort Myers when seconds count.

Or it could be your house or your business on fire waiting on a fire truck since station 105 and those pieces of equipment being storage there are not

being used.

It’s time to get real and find solutions for the Lehigh Acres Fire Department because the slow dismantlement services by the union and or

status quo does not work any more in Lehigh Acres.

Robert Anderson

Lehigh Acres

Editor’s Note: The Lehigh Acres Citizen did a much smaller unscientific poll. We simply asked people on the street for a feature question of the week and the people asked, said they would rather see the ambulance service turned over to the county since Lehigh residents have given millions of dollars to the county for that service anyway.

Chief Don Adams asked the commissioners at last month’s meeting to turn the ambulance service over to the county so he can put personnel back on fire trucks and reopen Station 5. The vote was split two to two. Commissioner Julie Barrett, who could have broken the tie vote was unable to attend because of a serious illness in her family.

The county has said it will put ambulances in Lehigh fire houses and lease and pay for the space and also will strategically place ambulances throughout the county and Lehigh area to serve the people.

Chief Adams was forced to lay off 37 firefighters in August to meet the budget due to less revenue in taxes coming to the fire district. He says that it is his professional opinion it is time to put the people who man ambulance on fire trucks because of the upcoming dry fire season. He said without putting more personnel on the fire trucks, the men and women who fight fires, can be seriously injured.

Polls can be taken and according to the way questions are being asked can produce all types of answers.

The public can attend the next meeting of the fire board on Nov. 19 at 4 p.m. at Veterans Park Community Center when the issue will be brought back up. The public can speak up at the meeting and offer their opinion. But it should be remembered that Lehigh will not be without ambulance service if commissioners vote to hand over the service to the county, just that it won’t be Lehigh personnel manning them.