[StBernard] Trailer Park Razed In Half-Million Dollar Mistake

[Westley Annis]

WDSU.com
Trailer Park Razed In Half-Million Dollar Mistake

POSTED: 1:18 pm CDT April 23, 2007
UPDATED: 10:09 pm CDT April 24, 2007

VIOLET, La. -- St. Bernard Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez had
some strong words as he watched the Federal Emergency Management Agency rip
apart a brand-new trailer park in Violet that was designed to house 24
trailers.

"This is totally ridiculous. This is a waste of taxpayer's money. Somebody
ought to go to jail," he said.

Not a single trailer was ever installed -- no one ever stayed in the park.

"We're 19 months, and I still got 171 families that need a place to stay,"
Rodriguez said.

"This is wasting taxpayer dollars again and not helping the people here in
our parish," St. Bernard Parish Council Chairman Joey DiFatta said.

FEMA rented the one-acre-plus site from Corinne Missionary Baptist Church in
January 2006. FEMA confirmed that a company called Flor was hired to build
the park.

But how much did FEMA pay Flor to construct the park?

"Well, that's sort of proprietary information about what a contractor
charges because each contractor has different billing rates so disclosing
how much it would cost would basically be giving you proprietary information
about contractual cost," FEMA spokesman Sid Melton said.

Melton said he couldn't give a definitive number on how much the project
cost taxpayers, either.

"But normally ... when we do projects, they normally run depending on the
size to $20,000 to $25,000 per pad," Melton said.

Using FEMA estimates, the site cost somewhere between $480,000 and $600,000.

So what went wrong?

"Well, they claim they found contamination on part of our ground back here
and that was the reason for not putting the trailers," said the Rev. John
Bailey, of Corinne Missionary Baptist Church.

Bailey signed a lease with FEMA that says, on Page 2, that the government
may enter the property before the commencement date of the lease to inspect
the property and perform an environmental assessment.

Bailey said the problem involved a small patch of dirt in the rear of the
lot around a clearly visible stack of old tires.

"Well, that's part of our land back there, and I've been renting a piece of
this property out to my relatives, and they used to have 18-wheelers back
there. And they claim they had oil on the ground and diesel went into the
ground, and they claim that's why they didn't put the trailers in because of
the contamination that went into the ground," Bailey said.

But the contamination wasn't discovered until construction had already
started.

"Their take on it -- and I have to assume this since I didn't walk the area
-- this looked more like just a debris area and was no records to indicate
there was any kind of dumping done in the past," Melton said.

So was there soil testing?

"Most of the time we don't, unless there is a real reason to do soil
testing," Melton said.

"Obviously they didn't do their homework. First they come into site, spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars and then, at the end of the event, find out
there may be a hazard, which I don't think may have been a hazard but they
just up and walk away. This is ridiculous," DiFatta said.

FEMA admitted it was money down a rat hole, but the agency said it happened
at a time when FEMA was trying to balance caution while trying to get people
housed quickly.

"This was identified in January of '06, and we were still in the midst of
trying to recover and things are expedited, and this was just something that
occurred," Melton said. "It disturbs us as much as it does anyone else,
because that's 24 families we could have housed already and brought in
units. So, it's not something we look lightly on either, because we try to
go through these sites any time we do this to make -- so we can get them
built, set up quick as possible to get families in to get them out of their
distress."

According to St. Bernard officials, there are still more than 100 families
waiting on FEMA for a place to live.
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