EH Home About Us Communities Radiation Medicine Water Sewage Programs Newsroom Data

Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing. For more information on this project, contact Cheryl Dunn, Environmental Health Director, or Julianne Renk, PACE-EH Coordinator, at the Indian River County

For more information on this project, contact Cheryl Dunn, Environmental Health Director, or Julianne Renk, PACE-EH Coordinator, at the Indian River County Health Department.

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
December, 2004 PACE-EH Report

To:             Daniel Parker, MSP, GAL
                    Assistant Division Director, Division of Environmental Health

From:         Julianne Renk, Environmental Specialist

Through:     Cheryl L. Dunn, RS, Environmental Manager

Subject:     December Wabasso PACE Grant Update

Project Hope visited West Wabasso on December 4th for a scheduled workday. The focus of their visit was to move families whose homes are scheduled for demolition into their FEMA trailers. Many of the families consisted primarily of older people who needed assistance removing personal belongings from their condemned homes. Three families were helped and Project Hope’s assistance enabled the families to secure items they wanted to keep, sequentially preparing the house for demolition.

On December 6th, the last community meeting that I officially hosted occurred successfully.

Agenda items such as the existing water project, sidewalks, park improvements, Project Hope, and drug trafficking were discussed during the meeting. The drug trafficking issue was discussed at great length and was the most heated topic of concern. Captain Dean from the Sheriff’s Dept. was present to address this issue and he fielded many questions and concerns that arose; for example, lack of patrolling officers and suspect activities of officers at night who were involved with known drug dealers. The issue of distrust and “crooked” cops kept echoing throughout the discussion of this issue and solutions such as going directly to the Sheriff with information were suggested to deflect any wayward policeman that were allegedly leaking information to the dealers. This seemed to pacify the attendees, but was not deemed a solution to the problem.

I participated in a meeting at the Planning Department on Dec. 9th regarding an organization named World Changers. The Planning Dept. wanted to solidify the cooperation efforts between agencies to support this organization coming to Indian River County. My attendance was essential due to the fact that they were deliberating where this organization could help residents in need of home repairs and yard clean up. Of course, I informed them that West Wabasso was in great need and handed out maps, newspaper articles, and census figures. At the end of the meeting, we all formed a consensus that West Wabasso would be the appropriate location for the World Changers to make an impact upon. Over 250 people have registered to participate in this event, which will provide home improvements to 25 residents in West Wabasso during the week of June 11-18, 2005. It is expected that by June 2005, over 400 people will be registered to take part in this endeavor.

Large amounts of time were dedicated to researching and acquiring easements for the water project during December. A lot of time was also spent on coordinating the demolition of houses. So far, it is likely that seven homes will be demolished and Project Hope will rebuild the homes that were occupied. On Christmas Eve, I teamed up with Project Hope and Detective Teddy Floyd to deliver Christmas gifts and Christmas dinner to eleven families in Wabasso. It was a great culmination to a year’s end of involvement of implementing the PACE EH process. Many lives were impacted by our involvement and the projects that have been developed as a result of identifying issues within the community are progressing successfully.

November, 2004

October, 2004

September, 2004

August and July, 2004

June, 2004

May, 2004

The following files are provided in the Adobe Acrobat pdf format. Files over 100 kb in size that may take longer to download and view, have their file size listed.

December 25, 2004 - Woman's work aids west Wabasso residents

October 18, 2004 - Storms stall Wabasso help

September, 2004 - PACE Progress Report for the Wabasso Environmental Assessment (620 kb) (From the Florida Journal of Environmental Health)

September 28, 2004 - Storms run Wabasso family out of own, borrowed homes

August 28, 2004 - Families get new homes

August 11, 2004 - Draft Brochure, Bringing Basic Needs to a Forgotten Community (1.4 meg file)

July 30, 2004 - Kindness rules in Wabasso (109 kb)

July 28, 2004 - Teens team up to build man's house

June 2, 2004 - Indian River seeks aid for water

May 26, 2004 - Groups enlist residents to help revive Wabasso

May 11, 2004 - Wabasso may have to wait a year for street lights to come on

May 9, 2004 - Town hall meeting to address Wabasso's needs