{"id":43310,"date":"2019-06-06T01:19:48","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T05:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=43310"},"modified":"2019-06-06T01:19:59","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T05:19:59","slug":"what-will-the-lehigh-acres-fire-board-do-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/06\/what-will-the-lehigh-acres-fire-board-do-next\/","title":{"rendered":"What will the Lehigh Acres Fire Board do next?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

With Taxable property valuations up in Lehigh Acres, according to preliminary estimates released by the Property Appraiser’s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Lehigh Acres, overall property valuation saw a more\nsubstantial boost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According the Property Appraiser’s preliminary numbers,\noverall valuation is up 9.8 percent within the Lehigh Acres Fire District, a\nboost of nearly $379 million over 2018’s final total of $4.08 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fire board has four tax options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Do nothing \u2026\u2026<\/li>
  2. Charge the maximum amount on the current fire\nassessment (approx. $343.00 per house)<\/li>
  3. Change to ad-valorem from the current fee assessment\n<\/li>
  4. Spend another $100,000 to $200,000 dollars on an\nelection in 2020<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Fire Board Chairman Cathy Kruse threaten the taxpayers at\nthe May 28, 2019 meeting, \u201cif they did not vote for the new simplified assessment\nfee we will just go back to ad-valorem.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If Kruse could get the board to go back to ad-valorem it\nwould be 3 mills or $3 dollars for every 1000 of value of the total of your\nproperty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If Kruse could convince the board and get a unanimous vote (a\n5-0 vote) the switch from assessment to ad-valorem with one board vote they\ncould ever go back to assessment fee without a vote of the voters of Lehigh\nAcres again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Commissioner Debbie Cunningham said on Facebook on June 6,\n2019.  \u201cThe citizens of Lehigh Acres had\nbetter hope that the board DOES NOT go back to ad-valorem. As one of you of\nyour commissioners, I will not agree with that, because your taxes will go up.\nThose who are currently exempt from nonad-valorem taxes, will lose those\nexemptions, and will be required to pay those taxes. I personally, as one of\nyour commissioners, will NOT vote to go back to ad-valorem taxes for the\ndistrict. Several of us tried to educate our citizens, but many preferred to\nlisten to those who gave out false information. The referendum will be back on\nthe general ballot in the election year 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Why did the fire board lose the June 4 election, small voter turnout NO, rain at 4 pm on election day NO. The biggest reason for the loss of the election was the three commissioners Cunningham, Sherman, and Bennett could not keep off Facebook or other social media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sherman and Bennett would talk to other Facebook users and degrade\nthem and actually talk trash about some of them. When people tried to ask questions,\nthey could not answer them truthfully. When asked to provide documents the\ncommissioners could not or would not provide the information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It actually states on the Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District website that, \u201cIt is very important for everyone representing the District to maintain high ethical standards of conduct. The elected commissioners of the District recognize and support the Florida laws that require proper and ethical conduct by the representatives of the District.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Aren’t Fire Commissioners representatives of the District????<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One Facebook user said this, \u201cBob Bennett seriously, and you\nrepresent our fire department! Wow, I can\u2019t believe this. I hope one of the\nnews stations read all the stuff you have written as a board member. I\u2019m just\nmind blown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, there is a special fire board meeting June 12, 2019 6 pm\nat Station 104 3102 16th St SW Lehigh Acres, FL 33976 (on Sunshine\nBlvd) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    THE PURPOSES OF THE SPECIAL MEETINGS ARE TO DISCUSS AND\nPOSSIBLY TAKE ACTION ON FINANCIAL AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT MATTERS AND TO\nDISCUSS AND POSSIBLY TAKE ACTION ON ANY AND ALL OTHER ITEMS THAT COME BEFORE\nTHE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    With Taxable property valuations up in Lehigh Acres, according to preliminary estimates released by the Property Appraiser’s Office. In Lehigh Acres, overall property valuation saw a more substantial boost. According… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":42716,"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\/43310"}],"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=43310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}