Mississippi town beneficiary of local funds

By M. Patricia Titus
Staff Reporter

With the decision made by members of a Sussex County Association of Towns (SCAT) committee last week, a total of $53,000 in cash donations from the county’s municipalities will be spent to help the Mississippi town and its 7,120 residents.

Waveland is located on a barrier island, 35 miles east of New Orleans, south of Bay St. Louis and west of the town of Pass Christian.

The city lost 40 residents to Hurricane Katrina and still listed an additional 51 residents as missing in recent days. The city’s structures were also heavily damaged, with significant destruction of its municipal facilities, in addition to homes and businesses.

SCAT information (obtained from the national association of town managers that recommended the city as a beneficiary) defines Waveland as a “working, middle-class, bedroom community” with residents of Cajun and Deep South heritage, a median age of 38, a median annual income of $33,304 and an average home value of a modest $90,100.

The city has been referred to as “ground zero” by FEMA officials who visited it after the storm.

Currently, the city’s administration is doing its work from the second floor of its wastewater treatment plant — one of the few municipal buildings on high enough ground to have survived Hurricane Katrina. Its city hall, municipal court building, post office and library are, simply, gone.

According to officials, not one brick of the three-story city hall building remained in place after the storm. It was completely washed away. All of the trees within a mile of the coastline have been stripped bare, with many tipped over, their roots ripped from the ground.

Every police car in the town, every firefighting vehicle, is also gone, along with the town’s public works vehicles.

Temporary housing for city employees is being provided at nearby Buccaneer State Park.

Visiting public works crews have estimated they will spend at least a year removing waste and the remnants of destroyed homes that once housed the thousands of people who called Waveland home.

Given that situation, the $53,000 donation from SCAT will undoubtedly prove useful for the city.

Some $5,000 of the funds came from SCAT directly — approximately a third of the total amount it had in its treasury. Other local donations came from the towns of Bethany Beach ($5,000), Ocean View ($5,000), Fenwick Island ($2,500) and South Bethany ($2,000).

Used computers were also donated by South Bethany, aimed at allowing city workers to go about both the business of recovery and its everyday work.

SCAT officials noted that they had considered six other Mississippi towns that had been devastated by the storm — all with populations less than 10,000 — including Pass Christian, D’Iberville, Ansley, Diamondhead, Saucier and Kiln. In the end, Waveland was chosen.

The SCAT effort was organized at the association’s September meeting, with $5,000 donations from both Seaford and Bridgeville kicking it off with a bang.

While donations from other SCAT-member towns have met some internal resistance from officials who were concerned about using taxpayer money for such an unplanned use without their direct approval, those citizens present at council meetings have generally supported the idea.

Fenwick Island even upped its initial $2,000 offer to $2,500 at the suggestion of one council meeting attendee. In accordance with Fenwick Island Town Council members’ wishes, the town was given extensive information on Waveland last week, once the decision was made that the town would be the beneficiary of the SCAT-member funds.

Town Council members appeared satisfied with that information at their Oct. 8 workshop-without-agenda and were prepared to deliver the town’s donation check to SCAT this week.

In related hurricane-relief news, Fenwick Island Mayor Peter Frederick said the town planned to arrange for the transport to Dover of some 40 boxes of donated goods for police at the Mississippi coast. From there, the donations will be airlifted by the Air Force for delivery to their intended recipients.

The donations have been collected as part of a drive by Fenwick Island police officer Jason Bergman, who recently returned from a two-week Delaware Army National Guard stint doing relief work in that area.

Bergman had run into roadblocks in trying to get the items delivered via the Army or national shipping companies and was looking for the donation of a box truck to drive them there himself in the coming weeks.

Fortunately, Fenwick Island public works employee and Air Force Reservist Dale Wilson returned from a two-week assignment to the hurricane-stricken area last week and raised the possibility that the Air Force might be able to arrange what the Army had not.

As of Coastal Point press time, the remaining obstacle to getting the items to the police who need them was making arrangements for police representatives to pick them up once delivered. When that is arranged, Fenwick Island officials plan to deliver the donations to Dover, where they will be palletized and sent on their way.

Until that time, donations will continue to be collected at Fenwick Island Town Hall. In addition to police equipment, Bergman is seeking toiletries, underwear, T-shirts and sunglasses for male and female officers, computers and office furniture, and cash donations to help with other needs.