Landrieu offers to help St. Tammany

2007-08-08

Source: Times-Picayunne

St. Tammany Parish may have found an advocate in U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, who pledged Tuesday to secure financing to place more police officers in district schools and to clear federal red tape blocking construction of a new Salmen High School in Slidell.

"FEMA isn't helping us; FEMA is hurting us in this regard," she said of the Federal Emergency Management Agency regarding plans for Salmen High after emerging from a roundtable discussion with school officials and community members.

The senator, who is traveling the state before Congress resumes in September, also briefed the St. Tammany-West Chamber of Commerce on initiatives she has spearheaded to help the state rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Those efforts include the Small Business Disaster Response and Loan Improvement Act -- co-sponsored by Landrieu -- which the Senate passed before going into recess last week.

The bill would let the Small Business Administration expedite its loan process after disasters by temporarily outsourcing the job to private lenders. The state lost 20,000 small businesses after Katrina, said Landrieu, D-La.

"We're continuing to fight for small businesses to be able to get their loans," she said.

During a news briefing at the school system's C.J. Schoen administrative complex in Covington, Landrieu said it is imperative for all districts to rebuild their damaged schools. The St. Tammany Parish school system has argued for months with FEMA over the design of Salmen, the only one of the district's 52 schools to be destroyed by Katrina two years ago.

The school system wants to build Salmen 12 feet above sea level to give it more protection from flooding and create space for parking underneath. The school site is 4 feet above sea level.

But FEMA says the buildings must be built to 11 feet above sea level and any change to that mandate would not be reimbursable by the agency.

The district had expected to pay only $7 million of the school's $40 million cost, with FEMA paying the rest.

Landrieu said she will propose a bill requiring FEMA to allow the new school to be built at the higher elevation, with the agency picking up the additional costs.

"It might be a little bit more expensive, but it is worth it," she said.

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