{"id":40977,"date":"2016-08-27T19:18:14","date_gmt":"2016-08-27T23:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=40977"},"modified":"2016-08-27T19:18:14","modified_gmt":"2016-08-27T23:18:14","slug":"letter-to-the-lehigh-acres-board-of-fire-commissioners-from-the-lehigh-acres-presbyterian-homes-of-lehigh-acres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2016\/08\/letter-to-the-lehigh-acres-board-of-fire-commissioners-from-the-lehigh-acres-presbyterian-homes-of-lehigh-acres\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter To The Lehigh Acres Board Of Fire Commissioners From The Lehigh Acres Presbyterian Homes Of Lehigh Acres"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notice is hereby given that the\u00a0Board of Fire Commissioners of the Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District (the \u201cDistrict\u201d) will conduct a public hearing to consider the imposition of fire protection and emergency rescue assessments\u00a0for the provision of Fire Protection and Emergency Rescue Services within the District\u00a0for the Fiscal Year beginning October\u00a01, 2016, and for future fiscal years until discontinued by the District.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The hearing will be held at 5:00 p.m. on August 30, 2016, at the Microtel Inn & Suites, Main Conference Room, 1320 Business Way, Lehigh Acres, Florida 33936, for the purpose of receiving public comment on the proposed assessments.\u00a0\u00a0All affected property owners have a right to appear at the hearing and to file written objections with the District within 20 days of this notice.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The letter below was emailed to all the Lehigh Acres Board of Fire Commissioners on Aug 26, 2016.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Dear Lehigh Acres Board of Fire Commissioners:<\/p>\n

Thank you for meeting with our residents on July 26th. I hope all of you had the opportunity to read their letters that were presented to you at the meeting. We and our residents fully support and are deeply grateful to the service of our fire fighters and first responders and we fully understand the need for a sufficient budget.<\/p>\n

In order to offset the numerous emergency calls you get from our residents, we have been educating them on the importance of getting proper healthcare before the need to dial 9-1-1 arises. We have an independent on- site wellness center that is open Monday \u2013 Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and we are encouraging them to utilize it.<\/p>\n

We have learned that when you voted to pass Resolution (15-05-01) which exempted Codes 05, 06, 08, 09 and 38 from the non-ad valorem assessment, you did not fully know the people they serve or how the Lehigh Acres Presbyterian Communities (PHL) really worked.<\/p>\n

N<\/strong>o<\/strong>w you know\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 PHL has maintained the commitment of affordable housing in Lehigh Acres since 1959<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 PHL is p<\/span>roperly coded<\/span> by the Property Appraiser as Code 13 (property used by nonprofit homes for the aged)<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 PHL has stayed true to the original mission and it has not changed into something \u201cdifferent\u201d<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 PHL is truly mission driven, not profit driven<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All of the community expenses are paid with rental income<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Presbyterian Church only provides community sponsorship but never financial support<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All board members are UNPAID volunteers<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The communities are simply not \u201cCash Cows\u201d and never have been<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 PHL has federal government oversight over budgets, rents and reserves<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 PHL files tax returns as 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit corporations<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 2015, the communities did not budget for the $145,803.87 assessments<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The communities were told they would remain assessment exempt if they were tax exempt<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 PHL provides affordable housing for 488 families or 613 persons<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $145,803.87\/488 families = $298.78\/12 months = $24.90 per unit per month rent increase<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The assessment is $300 per year for residents due to commercial space being assessed in addition to dwelling space<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The rents MUST GO UP to cover the Fire Control and Rescue assessments<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All of the senior and disabled residents are low income \u2013 average monthly income range: $762.84 – $1,264.00<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The residents do not just pay $10-$20 a month in rent<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The rents charged to residents range from $299 for a studio to $494 for a 2-bedroom<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Only 45% of the residents receive rental subsidies<\/p>\n

\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Supporting genuine non-profits that serve in your community benefits the entire community<\/p>\n

Now \u00a0\u00a0WE<\/span> <\/strong>know\u2026 \u00a0the commissioners on the Fire Board can vote to include Code 13 as exempt.<\/span><\/p>\n

PLEASE VOTE TO MAKE CODE 13 EXEMPT!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notice is hereby given that the\u00a0Board of Fire Commissioners of the Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District (the \u201cDistrict\u201d) will conduct a public hearing to consider the imposition of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":40978,"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\/40977"}],"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=40977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}