Fire board meeting changes
Despite the fact that nobody in Lehigh Acres has approached either one of the four members of the Lehigh Acres Fire Department’s board of commissioners about moving the meeting time of the board each month to the evening instead of late afternoon, the board voted 3-1 to meet in April at 6 p.m., instead of the usual 4 p.m. time.
Last month, Cathy Kruse, suggested that commissioners move their meeting date to the evening so more Lehigh residents would have the opportunity to attend the meetings.
Very few members of the public ever attend a fire board meeting and Kruse believes it is because people work and are unable to come to the meetings.
“I’m happy the way it is,” said Jeff Berndt, the board’s chairman, before a motion was made and a vote was taken. Commissioners David Adams, Larry Becker and Linda Carter all voted to make the change.
The next meeting is set for Wednesday, April 25 at Fire Station 104 at Sunshine and 16th St. The firehouse is south of Lee Blvd. The meetings are being held in the station’s conference room.
Fire Chief Don Adams questioned the timing of the meeting, noting that some of his staff who attend are paid overtime while others, who are on salary are not paid any extra pay to attend and set at the board’s head tables. Commissioner Linda Carter asked if employees who are paid by the hour could be given comp (compensation) time instead of overtime. Chief Adams said they do that already, but he would look into the timing and the pay to make a later meeting work.
This is not the first time in several years that fire boards have changed the meeting times from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Whenever the time was changed to a night meeting, numbers of attendees didn’t increase.
Mostly, those who attend are members of the fire department and sometimes their spouses. Now and then, a member of the public will attend, but it is rare.
By setting the time to 6 p.m., Cathy Kruse said she believes it will give more time after work for residents to attend meetings.
Kruse and others have in the past suggested during public response times at the meetings that the department needs to promote itself and educate the public about the department. They have suggested that the public especially needs to know about the economic problems facing the department in these hard times.
The department could go broke if more money is not brought into the agency and the people need to know, proponents of the evening meeting have said.
Also, some 47 firefighters will lose their jobs this summer if the federal government’s SAFER grand of several million dollars is not granted to the Lehigh Fire Dept. Two years ago, a SAFER grant was awarded the department prompting the chief to hire back three dozen or so firefighters that he had to lay off due to the lack of money in the budget to pay them.
Funds to operate the Lehigh Acres Fire Dept. come from ad valorem taxes and from fees paid to the agency for ambulance use. Ad valorem taxes have decreased due to the ailing economy and lesser values of property.
Commissioner Linda Carter suggested that the board meet at 6 p.m. on the last week of the month for the next six months. That would mean the board meetings will be held through September when Carter says the time factor can be evaluated.
Commissioner Larry Becker, who said he was retired, said he had attended the last East County Water Control (ECWCD) board of commissioners’ meeting and that it was held at 6:30 p.m. and only four people were there and two of them were would-be candidates for vacancies coming up in the fall.
Board Attorney Richard Pringle wasn’t sure if the new meeting time would be a conflict, but said he would do his best to be at the 6 p.m. meetings as long as they were during the last week of the month. He is board attorney to other Lee County fire districts.
Cathy Kruse, who attends all the fire board meetings, thanked the board for making the change.
John Benson, who identified himself as a snowbird from up north, told commissioners he had been a firefighter and was willing to help the department in times of need.
“But not in fighting fires,” he said. “I’ve done that.”
He said he had been in the firefighting business for three decades.
“I can cut grass at the fire stations and any do other things to free up the firefighters,” he said.
Toward the end of the meeting, Commissioner Becker noted that the late Kevin Shea, who was a member of the board who died unexpectantly last year, had warned the board that the department’s financial affairs were in trouble.
Because of the lack of funding for the department, Shea had suggested during meetings over and over again that if expenses were not cut and the lack of income continued, it could mean the fire department would become insolvent.
Becker stressed that the board and the department needs to examine the financial conditions for the next few months.
He cited the decrease in ad valorem taxes. He noted that fire equipment was several years old, The last fire engine for the department was purchased five years ago.
Chief Adams also told the commissioners that firefighters had been at local roadway intersections collecting money for the MDA Labor Day Telethon and has raised $8,480 from motorist dropping money into a firefighter’s boot.


