[StBernard] Citizens Recovery Committee Gets Started, and More

[Westley Annis]

Citizens Recovery Committee Gets Started, and More 

November 10, 2005

By: Steve Cannizaro


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Citizens Recovery Committee gets started; Canary Islands pledge aid to St. 
Bernard; Machine shop jobs available.

Recommendations to be made by a group of more than 30 community and business
leaders of St. Bernard Parish, who comprise a new Citizens Recovery
Committee, will help develop long-range plans for the parish, officials of
the group said at its first meeting Wednesday.

"Visualize what you'd like St. Bernard to be,'' Walter Leger, lawyer and
co-chairman of the group told its members, meeting in Chalmette. He also
said, "Hard decisions have to be made, some unpopular.''

The other co-chairman, state 4th Circuit Court of Appeal Judge David
Gorbaty, said the group must be self-less. "There won't be a political
agenda,'' just people "sincerely interested in the future of the parish'' 
Gorbaty said.

Council Chairman Joseph DiFatta Jr., who organized the committee, said,
"this will e a working group'' that will give advice to the Council. The
size of the committee will change as some members give their expertise and
are replaced by others, Difatta said.

Richard Hendricksen of Washinton state, a community coordinator for FEMA who
has a background as a city planner, will work with the group. He urged
members to apply themselves. "We're going to come up with great projects'' 
to entice funding from federal and state sources, Hendricksen said.

He said the public should be urged to comment on what they would like done. 
Service organizations in St. Bernard should also be brought into the plans,
he said.

Gorbaty and Leger said the work of the parish Recovery Committee is tied to
he Louisiana Recovery Authority, authorized by the governor to work with
federal teams in establishing community recovery planning assistance.

Several members of the St. Bernard made clear they think the biggest
projects for the parish involve working to get the Mississippi River-Gulf
Outlet closed, reconstruction of levees and restoration of marshes as
barrier for hurricane protection.

Kenny Campo, one of the new members said at the meeting that he has been a
member of the parish's Coastal Advisory Commission for years and their
efforts to help get funding for parish projects had been ignored. "It's a
shame we have to have a hurricane wipe us out'' in order to get attention
for the parish's needs.

The new group voted to seek a resolution of support from the Parish Council.

Besides Leger and Gorbaty, those named to the Citizens Recovery Commitee
include: Angie Balli, Tyrone Ben, Mark Benfatti, Glen Borne, Danny
Bourgeois, Donnie Bourgeois, Kenny Campo, Ron Chapman, Steve Cowen, Sal
Cusimano, Dr. Ralph Dauterive, V.J. Dauterive, Dr. Don Duplantier, Danny
Dysart, Mike Faulk.

Also, Steve Fecke, John Finckbeiner, Joe Gallodoro, Sandra Gibson, Marvin
LeBlanc, Joe Montalbano, Chris San Marco, Melanie Meyer, Gus Reiss,
Claudette Reuther, Cliff Reuther, Ryan Vallee, Dr. Paul Verrette, Doris
Voitier, Rusty Vucinivich, and Al Waller.

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Settlers from the Canary Islands came to eastern St. Bernard Parish in the
1780s and since then cultural ties have continued to exist between the two
governments.

The parish has sister city agreements with Ingenio and Aguimes, two towns
among the seven inhabited islands that make up the Canary Islands, a Spanish
province off the coast of Morocco.

Now, the Canary Islands are offering to help St. Bernard Parish in its time
of need, pledging $100,000 that will be used for the parish's two Canary
Islands cultural groups, parish officials said.
St. Bernard Parish President Henry "Junior'' Rodriguez and Parish Historian
William Hyland have announced that government in the Canary Islands has
offered to set aside $100,000 for St. Bernard's hurricane relief effort.

The money will be distributed equally among the Los Islenos Heritage and
Cultural Society and the Canary Islands Descendants Association, said
Hyland, who said he doesn't know when the money will be sent to St. Bernard.

###

Applications for jobs as machinists and welders are being accepted at All
Service Machine Shop on Bonita Drive at the Port of St. Bernard in
Chalmette. The business hours are 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.