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fiOC <br />LEE NTY G­-DU <br />'Commitfed Today fora Betterir6fii w <br />May 12, 2011 <br />Linda Shook, Chair <br />Lee County -Board of Commissioners <br />106 Hillcrest Drive <br />Sanford, North Carolina 27330 <br />Dear Chair Shook: <br />First of all, the Lee County Fire Advisory Board would like to acknowledge the <br />unwavering service and support that our emergency personnel demonstrated on Saturday, <br />April 16` The community of Lee County is very fortunate to have men and women who <br />• answer the call to help their fellow citizens. <br />The Lee County Fire Advisory Board has scrutinized and reviewed the FY 2011/2012 <br />budget request from the county's seven volunteer fire departments. On April 13` we <br />reviewed the budgets by line item. We developed a set of questions specific to each <br />department's budget request. These questions addressed changes in amounts and <br />concerns regarding amounts in the line item. On May 11 th the Fire Advisory Board met <br />one -on -one with representatives from each fire department. During this one -on -one <br />meeting, the departments were asked to answer the questions raised during our review <br />process and to justify any changes in the budget from the previous year. The summation <br />of the Fire Advisory Board is that the volunteer fire departments continue to be frugal <br />with the taxpayer's money. Obviously, some departments are better funded than others as <br />a result in the variations in the tax base and potential for growth. We were encouraged <br />that for the most part the departments worked hard to submit budgets that reflect little if <br />no increase. The departments continue to diligently pursue applications for state and /or <br />federal grants. Last year we mentioned that one of the biggest challenges facing <br />emergency services is the new regulations from the FCC dealing with the narrowing <br />frequency bands for communications. The majority of the departments are working to <br />meet the deadline of January 2013. These new changes will require our departments to <br />upgrade and /or replace their pagers, portable radios, and mobile radios. For some of our <br />departments this has been a considerable undertaking and a costly endeavor. <br />• <br />