It’s up to N.O. to plan work, he says
By Melinda Morris
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
NEW ORLEANS — The top FEMA official in New Orleans said recently that despite finger-pointing, the federal agency has allocated money for fire and police station repairs in the city, but its role can only go so far.
“There’s a line the feds can’t cross,” said Jim Stark, director of FEMA’s Louisiana Transitional Recovery Office, which is based in Algiers. FEMA has allocated $133 million to the state for the repairs, money the state can then send down to cities and parishes, but the city of New Orleans is responsible for designing and planning the work.
“Not only has the physical infrastructure suffered, the governance infrastructure has suffered” in New Orleans post-Katrina, Stark told the Aug. 30 meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Algiers - Morning Edition after a member asked Stark about the state of fire station repairs.
In Algiers, the slow pace of the work is most noticeably exemplified by Engine 40 on Gen. de Gaulle Drive, which still has a blue roof two years after Katrina.
Stark said that as of recently, the city only had two architects on staff to review plans for the whole city, and City Hall is also “short on permitting people.”
Another issue is that some police and fire stations are pushing for more money than what FEMA can allocate, Stark said. FEMA can reimburse only for Katrina-related damages, and some of the stations want even more money to fix “deferred maintenance” that accumulated before the hurricane, as well as making upgrades.
Stark said there may be relief in sight because recently, the city let a contract to repair a group of fire station roofs in New Orleans.
“Hopefully, the station at De Gaulle will be roofed pretty soon,” Stark said.
Stark also discussed the March 2009 deadline for people to move out of FEMA travel trailers. Starting in March 2008, people living in the trailers will be required to pay $50 per month in rent, he said.
The state still has 43,000 families living in the trailers, and the goal is to move them into more permanent housing, he said. Eighty percent of those trailers are on private property, where people are rebuilding their homes.
“That’s good news,” Stark said, because those trailer dwellers are working to get back into their homes.
FEMA “is really focused on getting group sites closed,” where groups of the trailers are parked on public property. He said Gretna is an example of a city where groups sites have been closed.
The trailers won’t be sold once the occupants move out due to health concerns about formaldehyde. The used trailers are being taken to large “staging areas” in Baton Rouge, he said.
Copyright 2007 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company