PACE-EH Escambia1106

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PACE EH (Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health)

For more information on this project, contact Robert Merritt, Environmental Health Director, or Mary Beverly, PACE EH Coordinator at the Escambia County Health Department. All pdfs open in a new window.

ESCAMBIA COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
November PACE EH Project Update

1. Project Summary

? On November 6, 2006, I met with the Senior Water Quality Scientist for the County Engineering Department. He gave me insight into how he could seek additional funding to help with this project if we can somehow relate our flooding issues to a surface water body.

? On November 7, 2006, I met with DOT Engineers at the large storm-water pond in Kupfrian Park, next to the retirement village. I gained insight into where the overflow pipes go after the ponds DOT permitted pump kicks on. It turns out that the piping heads to a local bayou, so things look promising for possible additional funding. I will be working with the county for the submittal of additional grants.

? On November 15, 2006, a drainage ditch near this neighborhood is causing additional flooding due to the construction of a large multi-story building. I made contact with the permitting authority and they issued a notice to have the drainage corrected. We won?t know if the corrections have been made until after another heavy rain. (See my attached power-point photos)

? On November 27, 2006, we had our 4th Community Meeting. I presented a power-point displaying photographs of the neighborhood along with survey results. The County will draw plans for road improvements, drainage, sidewalks and lighting and has already hired a construction company for this purpose. A sewer project is still on the table, but due to high costs and buy in from the neighborhood residents, we are still gathering information.

? Baptist Hospital representatives attended the meeting and squelched rumors of expansion and purchasing in this neighborhood. Commissioner Marie Young, District 3 attended the meeting and gave her support for this project. I believe that we are definitely heading in the right direction. We have begun forming our CEHAT team and are going to begin having our small meetings soon. We will sit down with the County Engineers to help draw up some plans for roads and drainage. We also plan to meet with Law Enforcement to address the safety issue. - Mary Beverly, REHS.

2. Work Plan and Process Update

PACE-EH Tasks	Action	Outcome	Target Date
Task 1: Determine Community Capacity	-Specific resources, skills and capacities needed for the project have been identified.	Completed
	-Obtain inservice training.	Completed
	-Review State of Florida PACE-EH projects to use as models.	Completed
	-Establish new working relationships with other agencies, businesses and organizations.	Completed
	-Identify potential strengths and weaknesses of community.	Completed	August 21, 2006
	-Conduct first community meeting	Completed
Task 2: Define and Characterize the Community	-Assess community partners to help determine community involvement	Completed	September 30, 2006
	-Describe the community?s characteristics, composition, organization and leadership
	-Refine the definition of the community as needed
	-Conduct a pre-pace survey
Task 3: Assemble Community Environmental Health Assessment Team	-Clarify expectations and duties of ECHD EH team members	Completed	September 30, 2006
	-Identify community partners for CEHAT and clarify expectations and duties
	-Determine a governing structure, decision-making structure, and ground rules
Task 4: Define the Goals of the Assessment	-Establish goals and objectives for the assessment	Still pending-working with County officials and residents to establish goals
	-Describe the vision that will guide the process
	-Describe the scope of issues to be addressed by the assessment
	-Define key terms
Task 5: Generate the Environmental Health Issue List	-Collect data on community concerns	Completed for the most part, still working on attitudes, behaviors and perceptions	September 30 - November 2006
	-Collect data on community knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions
	-Create a manageable list of issues

3. Outstanding Issues/Concerns

We are still concerned over the small representation from the neighborhood residents. After much discussion, we believe that the low turn out is due to lack of trust. The residents simply believe that nothing will be done, so why participate. These same issues were addressed a few years back and the ball was dropped. Petitions were signed for improvements a few years ago; however, no one can find them. We are looking into other possibilities such as, different meeting times and locations, going door to door again, small health fair, article in paper, and other media.