[StBernard] ST. Bernard projects

[Westley Annis]

Go to www.louisianaspeaks.org to see the projects each affected parish
submitted to the LRA for federal funding. St. Bernard has 33 projects. The
FEMA consultants ranked the projects low, medium, high priority, and
community impact based on the criteria in the FEMA recovery planning tool.
You can sort projects by parish, as well as category such as economic
development, housing, etc. Orleans is the only parish not listing projects
and I suspect that it is tied to the present relationship between FEMA and
New Orleans. 
 
One $700,000 project for St. Bernard is wireless internet within the parish
at various public locations and parish wide elsewhere for a nominal
subscription fee.  I would hope that the grant covers the cost of public
access computers at the public access wi fi spots. These internet access
spots may be our public library system for a few years.  It's all about
accessing information-same mission, same vision, same goal as a brick and
mortar library.  I'm paying $65 a month for a Verizon aircard to access the
internet, which I will not give up since it gives me internet access while
evacuating and wherever I evacuate and while living in a FEMA trailer.
Access to the internet is a must have for any college student for getting
messages, assignments, tests, and on-line courses. 
 
Take a look at all 33 projects and click on DETAILS for the project scope
and other info about what each project accomplishes. These are the ideas
that came from the St. Bernard Citizens Recovery committee and the public
meetings they  held, as well as parish officials. Every project has
champions, stakeholders, proponents, etc.  We have to get our fair share of
the money to be allocated around the affected areas and compete against the
other hundreds of worthwhile projects. 
 
Deborah Keller