![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Liar-Liar-300x178.png\" "\\"Liar")
Residents around Lehigh Acres Fire Station 105 on Bell Blvd have been seeing jumps in the cost of homeowner insurance of 80 to 150% in the last three months. Lehigh Acres Gazette has received multitude of inquiries about insurance rates and the Lehigh Acres Fire Dept.<\/p>\n
So we have done a little snooping around and what did we find a \u201cTo Whom It May Concern\u201d letter penned by Lehigh Acres Department Fire Marshal Ken Bennett, dated Effective June2015.<\/p>\n
Will called the Fire Department to verify the letter and Chief John Wayne is on vacation, but one of the administrative staff did verify the letter and stated it is still in effect.<\/p>\n
It states, \u201dAt this time Station 105 located at 636 Thomas Sherwin Ave S. Lehigh Acres, Fl. 33974 is also staffed 24 hours per day, seven(7) days a week with an ALS Ambulance. Where staffing levels will allow, a fire engine will be placed in service on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
This statement means that this fire truck is not in operation 24\/7 only the ambulance is.<\/p>\n
Out of all six insurance companies we talked to, all have now adjusted the area around station 105 a Protection Class 10 which the most expensive to have. WHY?<\/p>\n
According to one real estate professional we asked in Lehigh Acres, he stated this is start of a ripple effect in that area of Lehigh Acres. It\u2019s going to be harder to buy or sell homes in that area just because to cost of insurance and we also have to disclose that Lehigh Acres Fire has a fire assessment added to your tax bill.<\/p>\n
According to one Insurance agent in town we cannot fix this issue only the fire department can.<\/p>\n
This is not want the voters voted for in November 2014 then the Fire Fee Assessment passed. Fire Chef John Wayne and the Fire Board promised fully man stations so this would not be an issue. .<\/p>\n
Wayne was quoted to say, it would less expense to pay the Fire assessment than having your homeowner insurance go up. Gee, it looks like same voters get both.<\/p>\n
So does Wayne owe the taxpayers around Station 105 a refund of their fire fee assessment?<\/p>\n
Even during the Wayne\u2019s presentations to community leaders of the Fire Assessment there was going to be an issue because one line in the presentation states: \u201dISO rating adjustments will result in higher Property Protection Classification; this may affect fire insurance premium.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lehigh Acres Gazette was told were is list at Fire Station 105 waiting for call backs to residents in the area then the fire engine is officially placed back on 24\/7 service. The department has verified the list does exist but has refused to provide us the list.<\/p>\n
Instead of buying three new ambulances, remodeling a station 101 on Joel and spending hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars on legal fees this year alone, why not spend the money agreed to by the voters and man all five stations 24\/7?<\/p>\n
So what is your life worth when Chief John Wayne has lied again to the voters of Lehigh Acres and will not man all the fire stations 24\/7?<\/p>\n
We tried reach out Fire Commissioner \/ Chairman Cathy Kruse but she has not returned our calls to date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Residents around Lehigh Acres Fire Station 105 on Bell Blvd have been seeing jumps in the cost of homeowner insurance of 80 to 150% in the last three months. Lehigh… <\/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\/39557"}],"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=39557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}