The Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District opened its Nov. 27 monthly meeting with a swearing in and oath of office ceremony. The district’s attorney Richard Pringle led the proceedings which welcomed aboard two new faces, as well as a current veteran commissioner.

Commissioner Linda Carter reassumed her current district seat 2 on the board. Other seats filled on the board included the election of Robert Bennett who filled fire district’s seat 3, which was formerly held by William Ernest Liedtke and Cia Gomez-Sherman who now sits at the fire district’s seat 5.

According to Lehigh Fire Chief Robert DiLallo, the new commissioners have already begun their training, which includes briefing on current projects and laws fire district commissioners must be familiar with to perform their jobs.

“Monday night they attended a workshop with both our district attorney and our labor attorney Nik Joshi. They went over the Sunshine Law and the various other laws we follow in the state of Florida,” DiLallo said.

During the meeting, commissioners voted to approve the purchase of two new fire engines, which will replace a few of the fire district’s older models and a motion in favor of the preconstruction process to start repairs on current buildings.

“Now we can move forward with the construction process to get the stations damaged during Hurricane Irma back together. On Station 101, we will keep the current bay but need to rebuild the living quarters. Station 102 will be torn down and rebuilt into a new station,” DiLallo said.

Commissioners also approved preconstruction work for the district’s new station 6 site. The station will be located at Sunshine Boulevard North, near 17th Street West. The district closed on the property, a four-section parcel, earlier this year.

“We are aways away from starting the actual construction, but we can now move forward with preparing the land and request a future use zoning change. Currently the land is zoned as residential,” DiLallo said.

According to DiLallo, the fire district is seeing a pick-up in call volume and getting ready to go into brush fire season.

“The dry season is coming up, so we are getting ready. We just received two brush trucks from the Florida Forestry Services. They donate the trucks which we then refit to become brush trucks,” DiLallo said.

Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District will hold its next regular monthly meeting on Dec. 18 at 5 p.m. inside fire station 104, at 3102 16th St. SW, Lehigh Acres.