by James Coulter
Lake Wales residents living in single-family and mobile homes may be paying more for fire protection, while multi-family homes may end up paying less, now that the Lake Wales City Commission has given their preliminary approval of changes to the City’s fire protection services assessments.
At their regular meeting on Tues. June 3, 2025, Lake Wales city commissioners voted unanimously to approve a resolution providing for fire protection services assessments.
If approved, these assessments will go into effect next fiscal year beginning October 1, 2024.
Under the proposed changes, single-family homes will pay $174 per dwelling unit, while multi-family homes will pay $143 and mobile homes will pay $63.
Meanwhile, for non-residential properties, commercial properties will pay $0.18 per square foot, while industrial and warehouse will pay $0.03 and institutional will pay $0.14.
“Failure in adopting Resolution 2025-11 will result in a loss of $1,906,519 in estimated net revenue dedicated to the fire department budget. This money would then have to come from the general fund,” wrote Dorothy Abbott, Finance Director.
City Commissioner Carol Gillespie insisted that the fire assessment is completed regularly and utilizes a complex method to ensure the assessment is “fair and reasonable.”
“It will go up and we have to cover it and I think this is a reasonable assessment we are voting on,” she said.”
Robin Gibson agreed with her comments.
City commissioners made a motion and second to approve the resolution, which passed with a unanimous vote.
