To the Editor:

I want to clarify something I said at the Lehigh Acres Fire Board meeting on Jan. 21 concerning the financial conditions at the department.

I brought up where the department could use $700,000 out of the operating expense reserves.

I believe that we can utilize this due to the fact that on Oct. 31, 2008, we had $1 million in operating reserves.

On June 30, 2009, there was $2,980,654. And on December 31, 2009, there was $4,588,398; therefore I feel that we can use $700,000 out of that $4 million plus operating reserves to bring back enough personnel to reopen Station 105 which is on Milwaukee and Bell boulevards. The station has been closed since August due to a massive layoff by the chief of firefighters.

In doing so, we will not disrupt either our capital reserves of $3 million or our disaster reserves of a million dollars.

Ralph Hemingway

Lehigh Acres

Hemingway is a member of the Lehigh Acres Fire and Rescue District board of fire commissioners.