[StBernard] Returning Business

[wannis at da-parish.com]

Stephen Fecke
Jubilee Foods
315 E. Judge Perez Dr.
Chalmette, La. 70043
E-mail: KDRFECKE at aol.com


My intentions are to return to the parish! This is a decision from my
heart mostly, however, there are many questions which must be answered
before I, or any business person using their head, can make a difinitive
decision. Here are the questions I would like answered before I invest a
million dollars back into my business:

1) Is my building habitable, or will it be condemned and need to be torn
down?
    My concerns are not structural, but health/environmental, (i.e. water
inside
    the cynderblock walls, oil from Murphy Refinery).

2) Will I be able to purchase flood insurance, and if so, at a reasonable
cost? Will the
    limits be raised by the National Flood Insurance Plan, to actually
cover the loss
    incurred by a business?

3) Will the Federal Government spend the necessary dollars to bring our
levee system
    up to standards to protect us from a cat 5 hurricane? Will the MRGO
remain open
    as is, to channel the storm surge directly back into St. Bernard
Parish? Will our barrier
    islands and marshes, which buffer us from storm surge, be restored?
How long will it be
    before our businesses are flooded again, and we as business owners
suffer a large
    financial loss?

4) How many homes will Murphy purchase and remove permanantly to create
the buffer
    zone around the refinery? How many homes must be totally removed
because of
    extensive damage? Where will the federal government let us rebuild,
and by what
    standards, (i.e. raised homes, or no buildings allowed in certain zones).

5) How many homes will be required by the EPA/DEQ to be removed because of
the
    Murphy oil spill? How extensive will the remediation in that area be,
and how long will it
    take? Will homes be able to be rebuilt there, and how long before
building will be
    allowed in that area?

6) Where will my employees live, and what services should they expect to
provide them
    with some quality of life? (i.e. schools, medical treatment faclities,
fire and
    police services, etc.).

7) What money will be made available by State and Federal agencies to
assist business in
    restarting/rebuilding their business? As of today, 10/21/05, I have
not received any
    response from the numerous loans/grants I have applied for. How long
do I wait for a
    reply?

8) What parish/state/federal tax incentives will be offered to businesses
that do return
    to flood damaged areas, and flood prone areas, and suffer the risk of
going through this
    all over again? As of today, 10/21/05, I have seen nothing in writing
by a government
    entity outlining and guaranteeing these incentives, other than some
personal IRA and
    hiring incentives.

     In summary, I love St. Bernard Parish and have called it home for the
past 45 years, since my birth. The majority of my family and friends
are in St. Bernard Parish. All the wonderful customers/friends I have
made over the past nine years, are a great blessing. My heart wants
to return, but my head tells me to ask these questions! I think it
would be alot easier for any business owner in St. Bernard Parish to
answer the question, "Are you returning to business?", if our public
officials could answer these questions for us. I realize that the
answers to many of these questions are impossible at this time, and
without these answers, so is the question we are being asked to
answer!

                                                                                     Respectfully
yours,
                                                                                     Steve
Fecke

May God bless and strenghten us all during these trying times.
We may have lost everything thing we owned, but if continue to keep the
Lord in our life, we retain the greatest treasure of all!!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/stbernard/attachments/20051021/d0b8beb1/untitled-2.html