[StBernard] Rep. Melancon Announces $8.7 Million Recovery Investment for St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office

[Westley Annis]

Rep. Melancon Announces $8.7 Million Recovery Investment for St. Bernard
Parish Sheriff's Office
March 12, 2010by Louisiana RealEstateRama

Funds Will Reimburse Sheriff for Utility Bills at Temporary Housing
Facilities

WASHINGTON, D.C. - March 12, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) - Congressman Charlie
Melancon (LA-03) announced today that the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office has
been awarded $8,742,938.22 in federal reimbursement grants. This investment,
funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will reimburse the
sheriff's office for utility costs for their temporary housing facilities
incurred from July 2008 through August 2009.  Storm surge and flooding from
Hurricane Katrina caused such extensive damage to St. Bernard Parish that
the sheriff's office has been providing temporary housing facilities since
the storm for essential law enforcement personnel as the community continues
to rebuild.
"Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters and the levee failures tested the strength
of everyone in St. Bernard," said Rep. Melancon. "Even though many in the
Sheriff's Office were homeless and their headquarters were destroyed, these
heroes of St. Bernard never stopped serving their community. Helping them
cover the utility bills for their temporary housing is the least we can do
to honor their sacrifices."

Since the 2005 storms, Congressman Melancon has worked in Congress to reduce
the financial burden on sheriff's offices, local governments, and other and
public entities in south Louisiana that are still struggling to recover.
After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Congressman Melancon worked to pass
legislation waiving 100 percent of the local cost share requirement for
disaster recovery projects in Louisiana, including today's grant for the St.
Bernard Sheriff's Office. Before the local cost share was waved, many of the
estimated 23,000 disaster recovery projects in Louisiana had been put on
hold because local governments did not have the resources to pay the local
cost share.

In 2007, Congressman Melancon worked with the Louisiana delegation and
Congressional leadership to pass legislation allowing federal Community
Disaster Loans (CDLs) to be forgiven for Katrina- and Rita-affected
communities that could not afford to repay them.  After the storms, over $1
billion in CDLs were provided by the federal government to
hurricane-affected local governments in Louisiana to help them continue
funding daily operations, such as payroll for law enforcement and emergency
responders.  Many local governments in south Louisiana still do not have the
resources to repay this massive debt, as their tax bases were devastated by
the storms.  With the passage of the 2007 Supplemental , FEMA was given the
discretionary authority to forgive Katrina and Rita CDLs, paving the way for
a huge financial burden to be lifted for local governments in south
Louisiana