[StBernard] Meetings Thursday, Friday to discuss hurricane aid to Louisiana fishers

[Westley Annis]

Meetings Thursday, Friday to discuss hurricane aid to Louisiana fishers
By Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
January 13, 2010, 6:29PM
The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Louisiana Recovery
Authority will hold two meetings this week to discuss $32.7 million in
federal money set aside for fishing industry recovery from Hurricanes Gustav
and Ike in 2008.

The first meeting will be held Thursday at 10 a.m. in the St. Bernard Parish
Council chambers at 8201 W. Judge Perez Drive in Chalmette. The second will
be Friday at 2 p.m. in Jefferson Parish at the Yenni Building, 1221 Elmwood
Park Blvd., Suite 405.

The money comes from a Community Development Block Grant from the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development set aside for disaster recovery
in Louisiana after the 2008 hurricanes. Plans so far include a grant and
loan program for commercial fishers, an infrastructure repair program for
coastal fishing communities, assistance for seafood dealers and brokers who
received damage and a fishing efficiency program aimed at making boats and
fishing gear more fuel-efficient and cost-effective.

The grant and loan program and the gear efficiency program will total $15.2
million; the coastal communities program is $8.5 million; and the seafood
dealer program will be $9 million.

The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has been handling a separate
Gustav-Ike fishing recovery program that reimburses fishermen for costs they
incurred resulting from the storms. As of the end of December, more than $15
million has been paid out under that program.