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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
January, 2005 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:      January Wabasso PACE EH Grant Update

In January 2005, three homes were demolished in West Wabasso. These three families will have their homes rebuilt by Project Hope. The World Changers organization met in Wabasso to assess homes to perform minor repairs on during the week of June 11-18th. They expect over 300 people to participate in this one-week event and throughout January we’ve helped them network with the community and the owners of the homes that are to be repaired. On January 17th and also on the 18th, I participated in Martin Luther King events that included a mock march and a parade. It was quite an experience to take part in these events at which the highlight was marching and singing, “We Shall Overcome” while holding holds with this region’s President of the NAACP, Victor Hart.

Later in the month, I organized a “sweep” of different agencies to go door-to-door in West Wabasso so that issues such as abandoned vehicles, homes, and faulty septic tanks could be assessed. The results from the sweep included condemning ten homes, examining candidates for septic tank replacement/repair, and issuing citations for abandoned vehicles and junk/trash and debris. Some of the abandoned homes were condemnable and will be demolished for free by a local land clearing company and the landfill fees will be waived as agreed upon by the Indian River County Board of Commissioners. These combined efforts will upgrade the appearance of the community and serve to further address the issue of safety that was identified by the West Wabasso community. Many of the abandoned homes were becoming havens for drug dealers, so the action plan to condemn and demolish them should be quite effective.

The last week of January was very busy due to a trip to Miami Beach to speak at the Partners for Smart Growth Conference. I was proud to give a presentation about the PACE efforts in West Wabasso and to illustrate that the PACE EH process can drastically improve the quality of life for people. On January 31st, the John’s Island Foundation performed a required site visit to learn more about the grant request, which I submitted to them in 2004. The grant is titled “Septic Sanitary Solutions” and addresses correcting the failing septic systems in West Wabasso. After only seeing two of the failing septic systems in Wabasso, the tour ended and the group concluded that “they’d seen enough!”  We should know if they are interested in funding the proposal very soon.
 

December, 2004

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