Fire Department Facing Shortfall

The Lehigh Acres Fire and Rescue District is facing a1.9 million dollar shortfall according to commissioners .

Friday night, commissioners adopted  roughly a 24 million dollar budget.  Chief Adams said because one of  its grants mandates that the department  keeps a certain amount of staff and trucks at all its stations, this deficit will not affect positions or services.

“But that’s also one of the reason why our expenditures are so high because of these stipulations… as personnel costs and trucks and services, nothing is going to change,” said finance manager, Ben Van Klingeren.

Lehigh Acres Fire and Rescue District spokesperson said it is planning on dipping into reserve funds to balance the budget.  The final budget hearing will be st 5 p.m., Sept. 25, 2012, at Station 104 located at 3102 16th Street SW.