{"id":29665,"date":"2014-02-26T00:50:29","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T05:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=29665"},"modified":"2014-02-26T00:50:29","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T05:50:29","slug":"lehigh-acres-fire-assessment-fee-proposal-released-to-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2014\/02\/lehigh-acres-fire-assessment-fee-proposal-released-to-the-public\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Acres Fire Assessment Fee Proposal Released To The Public"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A fiery debate and some harsh words on both side of the picture all in an effort to keep fire and ambulance service in Lehigh Acres.<\/p>\n

In two years, the Fire Chief say the department will go broke. While other say they should just cut back on spending.<\/p>\n

One proposal is a flat rate for residents locked in at $292 a year — but the Chairman of the\u00a0fire commission Larry Becker doesn’t think that would be fair. Should a smaller home subsidize larger home in Lehigh Acres, that\u2019s what the flat rate will do put the burden on the unfortunate class of people in Lehigh Acres.<\/p>\n

“I look at vacant lots. A lot of them are owned by people\u00a0out of the country and out of Florida,” said Carol Cunnius.<\/p>\n

Under this plan vacant land owners would only pay $21 an acre. Some residents at the meeting say that’s way too inexpensive.<\/p>\n

“We gotta make it fair. A private lot, $21, that’s a laughing joke,” one resident said aloud.<\/p>\n

Commissioners are working on another plan. That will be presented at the end of next month. Voters will have the final say in the next election which could be as early as August.<\/p>\n

“The Fire Assessment Fee vote will be one of the most crucial votes in the history of Lehigh Acres,” Lehigh Acres Fire Chief John Wayne said.<\/p>\n

If passed, rates would change in 2016. This assessment fee will also replace the\u00a0current dollars\u00a0being taken out of ad-valorem property taxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fiery debate and some harsh words on both side of the picture all in an effort to keep fire and ambulance service in Lehigh Acres. In two years, the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}