Mayor eyes homeless center site

Mayor Mark Stodola has begun circulating news of a potential site for a day center for homeless services, a matter of some controversy in recent months. He's invited interested parties to tour the location, a former state probation office at 1421 E. 9th Street, in the industrial district on the west side of the airport. No details as yet on cost and related issues. There's been no formal public announcement of which I'm aware. He also hadn't told city directors until word leaked out and one of the directors complained about the lack of notice.

City Director Erma Hendrix, who represents the area, said the mayor did not call her until after the note was circulated. I got it before she got the news. She's not happy. She still has objections because of the concentration of shelters in her ward. She suggested a better spot would be the vacant Harvest Foods store in the Riverdale shopping center on Cantrell Road, which is along a rail line and near a popular spot for homeless camps. She said she'd invite some East End residents who live near the proposed site to attend the tour with the mayor Wednesday morning. "Mark is just bent on provoking me," Hendrix said. "It's just not fair." She said Stodola didn't want a residents' meeting on the center, but wanted to talk to her individually. "That's just not right," she said. "We are a community."

The mayor's note on the jump:

I would like to invite various interested parties to tour a potential location for the Homeless Day Service Center. I would like feedback from the Mayors Homeless Commission, the Homeless Coalition and the public. With winter closing in upon us, I would like to move forward with establishing a permanent location as soon as possible. I have toured the building in the past and believe it will accommodate a variety of needs including a safe and secure location for feeding the homeless; offices for case assessment and referral; job re-training and referrals; certain medical needs; laundry facilities and clothing areas; as well as likely emergency shelter needs including a warming center for this winter.

The location is at 1421 E. 9th St. Little Rock, the former Arkansas Department of Correction Probation offices. The site, which is 4 acres, is fully fenced with ample parking and substantial green space at the rear of the property.

The initial tour will be this Wednesday, December 1, 2010 at 11:30am. We may need to tour this facility again, but I want to get the process started. Thank you.

Mark Stodola

Mayor

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.

View the original article here

Progress in the clean beach of Gulf oil spills meets Orange Beach Mayor

ORANGE BEACH, Alabama) - before the deep beach cleanup process has begun, Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon was uncertain that BP PLC officials were takes seriously its deadline for the end of the year.

But Friday, at the end of the second week of effort to remove oil beneath the surface of sand, Kennon notice had changed, as large equipment, sand filtering has continued to push westward.

"Like it display large cleaning deep format", said Kennon."We clean much, much larger."

"We are involved in the decision-making process, and they (BP) were all active addition."The Mayor sets the Alabama Department of Environmental Management holding oil giant with a date of January 1 to ensure that the orange beach sands are restored. BP officials have said that they marked spots where large swaths of oil - tar - mat called had been buried.

State Agency monitors the progress of what is called the "three phase" the efforts of cleaning, according to the spokesman of the ADEM Scott Hughes.

"We certainly support local government officials and their desire to also led cleaning quickly as possible to ensure that the beaches are clean", said Hughes. "We work with to make BP reached this goal.?

BP has also begun stationing its progress online with a bp.com Alabama map. Friday, map showed two 500-garden-long beach - sections on the eastern border of the State, another West later, cotton - Bayou State Park marked with a white line and the word "cleansed".

But BP spokesman Ray Melick said it means not servants had erased carpet tar and these regions in accordance with the standards of the ADEM tarballs.

"It means just we moved out of the box and we'll have TACOS (shore cleaning technical evaluation) teams to go back and check" Melick said.

At this time, ADEM to comb the zones to determine if BP according to Hughes cleaning standards.

"If ADEM considers that the objectives were not met, we will mandate that additional cleaning to do," said Hughes. " The goal for public beaches is no visible oil."BP card indicates the two sections as"work in progress"and the oil giant has closed sections of the beach while crews work, tractors, bulldozers and 40 feet"Sand Sharks"plough shoreline.

In some regions, heavier equipment excavated deeper than 3 feet beneath the surface, tar mats according to Hughes.

But the ADEM neither BP could say that the amount of oil had been removed on the shore of Alabama as of Friday.

Another Blue segment on "work to meet 11/1/2010" card shown between condo towers Turquoise Place Resort Phoenix VI.

Melick said crews usually work in any of sections 500 yards for three days at a time.

Although Kennon Friday said he was convinced that cleaning would be completed before the end of the year, BP officials are reluctant to confirm the date limit.

"This is such a sensitive issue," said Melick.Il said the weather or other unforeseen events could slow down the work.

Kennon said that he was with representatives of the city, with ADEM, after cleaning every day.

"Everyone knows that we will not 100 percent get oil," said the maire.Mais our intention is to document and quantify how much is the plage.puis we'll have data do us together.?

This entry transmitted via the service for full-text RSS - if this is your content and you read on someone to another site, please read our FAQ page fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Article five filters features: After Hiroshima - non-rapport Cancer Catastrophe of Fallujah.

View the original article here