[StBernard] Free Health Clinic Opens, and More

[Westley Annis]

Free Health Clinic Opens, and More 

December 1 , 2005

By: Steve Cannizaro


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Free health clinic opened Thursday; flu shots soon to be available; school
system will use bottom floor of Chalmette High on Jan. 18 as number of
students increases daily; outside lanes of East Judge Perez Drive open to
traffic at Violet Canal

A free health clinic opened Thursday, Dec. 1, in a triple-wide office
trailer located at the Super Wal-Mart parking lot on West Judge Perez Drive
in Chalmette and flu shots will soon be available there, St, Bernard Parish
officials said.

The clinic will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week, staffed by a
combination of parish physicians and personnel from the U.S. Public Health
Agency and a Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT).

The DMAT had been operating for weeks out of tents at the Chalmette High
School football field but that facility will be closing, officials said.

Officials also said the new clinic will remain open for several months,
until a bigger facility is operational.

Flu shots for St. Bernard Parish residents are expected to be available
shortly at the trailer clinic.

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As the number of students increases daily at the recently opened St. Bernard

Unified School, public school officials said they hope to use the bottom 
floor of Chalmette High School on Jan. 18, when the second semester begins.

"Were hoping to move into the classrooms and the cafeteria on the 18th and 
the gymnasium shortly afterward,'' Superintendent of Schools Doris Voitier 
said.

More than 550 students now attend classes, she said, an increase of 200 
since the first day of school on Nov. 14. More than 800 students have 
registered to come back for classes and the others are expected in January 
or when their families can obtain travel trailers from the Federal Emergency

Management Agency.

The Unified school is using classrooms on the second floor of Chalmette High

and in trailer classrooms outside, but plans are to also use the renovated 
first floor of the Chalmette High building on Jan. 18, she said, although 
some younger children may still remain in classroom trailers.

A new roof is being put on the entire school, Voitier said.
.
Also, she said all other public schools have now been cleaned and officials 
are thinking about where to open a second school next August for the fall 
semester, which could depend on where concentrations of travel trailers will

be placed.

"This has been a great experience,'' Voitier said. "New students are 
arriving each day and we are planning more after-school activities.'' 
Classes end at 3 p.m. but there are after-school activities for students 
until after 5 p.m., Voitier said.

###

Only the outside lanes of both sides of East Judge Perez Drive, just east of

the Violet Canal, are being opened to traffic after a short period in which 
the east-bound lanes were closed because of travel trailers being placed on 
the roadway.

Affected is a 1-mile stretch from Violet Canal to Riverbend Drive in Violet.

A large travel trailer area is planned there for the west-bound lane of East

Judge Perez Drive, at which time the east-bound lanes are expected to be 
converted to two-way traffic, officials have said.