[StBernard] FEMA cuts St. Bernard funding

[Westley Annis]

FEMA cuts St. Bernard funding
Sheriff now must pay bill for trailer offices Thursday, July 31, 2008By Mary
Elise DeCoursey
St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Jack Stephens is scrambling to foot a $600,000
monthly bill for his department's St. Bernard Highway trailer complex after
FEMA pulled the plug on reimbursement for the site June 30. 

Stephens said he learned of the deadline in a mid-June letter from the
agency. 

For the past three years, "The Slab,"as it is known to its occupants, has
housed the department's administrative trailers, including detectives' and
dispatchers' offices. The Chalmette site also includes a residential trailer
complex for the displaced families of about 130 deputies. Stephens had
assured FEMA that his department would be out of the complex by January
2009. 

The June 30 deadline was too soon, he said. 

"We had always talked about going to the end of 2008," Stephens said. "What
made (June 30) the date they wanted to cut it off?" 

Bob Josephson, FEMA's director of external affairs, said this is not the
first time a funding cutoff has been discussed. It's been a "rolling
deadline," with the date first being August 2007, then June. The agency is
working to find other ways to pay the cost and get those living on the
complex into more permanent housing, he said. 

"We're not cutting them off," Josephson said. "We recognize that (Stephens)
is in a difficult situation, and we're trying to be as flexible as
possible." 

A U.S. House of Representatives bill passed in May 2007 that authorizes FEMA
to pay for temporary shelter for storm victims through February 2009 does
not apply in this case because the Sheriff's Office operates out of a group
trailer site instead of apartments, Josephson said. In a June letter to Sen.
Mary Landrieu, Stephens cited the legislation as a reason the funding should
be continued. 

Stephens is shopping for new office space and pushing for Congress to help
foot the bill. The congressional delegation that toured south Louisiana and
Mississippi recently visited with the sheriff and pledged to help. 

Robin Winchell, a spokeswoman for Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville,
said Melancon is looking to add the aid onto whatever bill "has the best
chance of passing as soon as possible." One possibility is a disaster relief
bill for victims of this summer's flooding in the Midwest, she said. 

"We consider this an emergency need," Winchell said. 

Stephens said FEMA helped get the department back on its feet after
floodwaters ruined his department's permanent office, an annex to the parish
courthouse in Chalmette. 

"When you look back in the total scheme of things, I don't know what we
would have done without FEMA," he said. 

But three years out, there hasn't been much progress to rehabilitate the
building. Josephson said FEMA has committed just over $7.5 million to
rebuild that office space. But between changing rebuilding plans and
negotiating the red tape, Stephens said, work is just now beginning and
probably will take two to three years to complete. 

Dave Peralta, the parish's chief administrative officer, said architects and
engineers now are looking at the building, which should come down "by at
least September." 

. . . . . . . 

Mary Elise DeCoursey can be reached at mdecoursey at timespicayune.com or
504.826.3362.