All eyes were on Neal Horrom, the only incumbent on either of Lehigh Acres’ two elective boards seeking reelection … the ECWCD and the Lehigh Acres Fire Department … and he lost big.

Horrom was toppled by two other candidates with David Deetscreek, a former golf pro and now an accounting business executive in Lehigh, easily winning the seat.

Deetscreek won 45.41% with 2996 votes. Coming in second was Andrew Frinkle and last was Horrom, who is ending a 12-year career on the ECWCD.

Frinkle received 29.44% or 2490 votes. Horrom came in third with 25.15% or 2127 votes.

Deetscreek told The Citizen soon after the numbers showed that he was the clear winner that he saw his victory “as a repudiation of the operations of the water district.”

“I am sure we will be reevaluating every move by the previous board,” he said. He fills Seat 2.

Joining him on Seat 4, which was vacated by long-time member John Boardman who decided to not seek reelection is Mike Bonacolta, a 21-year-old college student who is taking his first step into politics, too. He is a member of the Lehigh Acres Community Planning Corp., and was elected by fellow board members earlier this year.

Bonacolta won with 34.65% or 2996 votes.

Bonacolta told The Citizen Tuesday night that he was thankful to the people of the District who gave him their votes.

“I will spend the next four year continuing with my platform of honesty, efficiency and being a voice for the people,” he said.

What’s interesting about the race for Seat 4 is that Charles W. DeFelice had withdrawn a few months ago, but still drew 690 or 7.98% of the vote. It was too late for his name to be removed from the ballot. When voters went into the precincts, officials were supposed to tell the voter if a candidate had withdrawn from the race.

The results of the race raised the ire of ECWCD Commissioner Desmond Barrett Tuesday night who told The Citizen that the winners were “extremists.” The following is a statement from Barrett:

“While Mr. Deetscreek is ready to turn back the clock and try to undo what the water board has done in the past few years, he will face a challenge from me. I will stand and fight against every effort to take the district back to the stone age.

“While I may not have the votes, I do have a voice. I stand firm on my convictions of rebuilding this district. While radicals have taken over I will make sure that these extremists know that they will have to hear meeting after meeting, week after week in the paper from a street fighter who will fight their radical agenda.

“I won more votes in each of my elections then they did combined to win the seats. So if they think they speak for the people, well we will just have to see.

“Deetscreek won because Horrom never launched a counter attack. As everyone knows from my races, I start early and finished hard. Bare knuckle fighting. I am ready to stand to move Lehigh forward while Deetscreek and his radical supporters want to take the district back in time,” Barrett said.

Barrett may leave the board next spring and enter the ministry, according to his wife, Julia Barrett, who did not seek reeection on the Lehigh Acres Fire Board of Commissioners.

The other much looked-at race in Lehigh was the one to fill three seats on the Lehigh Acres Fire District Board of Commissioners.

Linda R. Carter defeated Whitey Doidge. Carter, like Bonacolta, is also a long-time member of the Lehigh Acres Community Planning Corp.

Carter won with 51.42 percent or 5161 votes. Whitey Doidge took 40.95% or 3579 votes.

Winning Seat 2 on the fire board is Larry Becker, who narrowly defeated Cathy Kruse. Becker who has been fighting cancer inched out over Kruse, whose son is a member of the fire department.

Becker received 51.42% with 4359 votes. Kruse won 48.58 percent with a total of 4118 votes.

Winning Seat 5 on the fire board is Kevin Shea who handily defeated Mohamed J. Yasin with 50.57% with 4308 votes. In this race, Chuck Collins, who withdrew from the race a couple of months ago, came in second with higher vote totals than Mohamed J. Yasin. Collins drew 3106 votes while Yasin drew 1105 votes or 12.9%.

Parts of Lehigh Acres are also part of State Senate District 27, which spreads across the state. In Lee County, Lizbeth Benacquisto, a Republican from the east coast of the state defeated Kevin Rader, the Democrat.

This is the seat that was occupied by Dave Aronberg, who ran for Florida State’s Attorney, but was defeated in the August Primary.

A part of Lehigh Acres is also included in State Representative District 73. Matt Caldwell, a Republican, who lives in Lehigh Acres, easily defeated Cole Peacock, the Democrat.

Caldwell received 17,484 votes or 56.51% while Cole Peacock received 12,554 votes or 40.58%.

One other race is of special interest to Lehigh Acres voters, too. That is the race for Lee Memorial Health System, District 4.

Frank T. La Rosa, the incumbent, who lives in Lehigh, received 17,642 or 11.3% of the vote.

Others in the race included Diane champion, 39,937 votes; Gary Eidson, 14,594 votes; Joann Conti Ellis, 19,374 votes, Chris Hansen, 34,738 votes, John C. Lawlor, 21,451 votes, and Dawson C. McDaniel, 16,110 votes.

The top two vote-getters were Hansen and Champion.

These totals represent the unofficial General Election results with 171 precincts reporting in Lee County. In Lehigh Acres, there are 17 precincts and all numbers were included in the final totals.