Firefighter Memorial Funding

At a glance

Based on auto-generated captions; figures are approximate.

What: funding the Cape Coral firefighter memorial planned at fire headquarters.
Where it stands: a bronze statue is bought ($95,200), but the remaining construction costs are far above the $210,000 budget. On October 14, 2026 council reached a consensus to keep the project open while other funding is found.
Next: the firefighters union and donors keep raising money; items must have an identified funding source before going out to bid.

Budget: $150,000 from the city plus about $60,000 from firefighter groups, $210,000 in all; design work was donated.
After the statue, $114,800 remained; remaining estimated costs are about $437,550, plus roughly $15,000 for landscaping and irrigation, leaving a gap of about $323,000 to $338,000.
Finance estimated only about $25,000 might be left from the fiscal year 2026 fire general fund budget, and fire service assessment money cannot be used.

Mayor Mayor Gunter brought the item and asked whether to continue and how to fund it.
Joe Kilraine supports it and offered to ask the building associations for donations or trade work.
Keith Long could not support roughly $400,000 more; Jennifer Nelson-Lastra questioned priorities and suggested more fundraising first; Dr. Derrick Donnell said there is no money and it should be tabled; William E. (Bill) Steinke asked how the statue was approved before the whole cost was known and would consider a fifty-fifty share.

About 18 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-14 - Committee of the Whole	18

2026-10-14 - Committee of the Whole — Cost gap of roughly $323,000 to $338,000 reviewed; council consensus to keep the project open while more funding is sought.