Print This Page

EH Home

About Us

Communities

Radiation

Medicine

Water

Sewage

Programs

Newsroom

Data

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.

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
April, 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:      April Wabasso PACE EH Grant Update

Enough of talking-it is time now to do. Tony Blair. April was a month full of putting ideas and action plans into motion. For many months, we have been planning and following up on projects and chipping away at making solutions to identified issues a reality. Finally, the remaining easements that were outstanding, but required for the water project to be funded, were turned in and recorded. The Utilities Department officially announced that they received a Community Development Block Grant in the amount of $702,000 to fund the water project. The County Administrator assured the community that he will pay the costs over and above this amount (estimated $123,000) to ensure the West Wabasso residents will have the connections free of charge. The construction for the pavilions in the park has begun. Residents are enjoying the streetlights. Visually, the neighborhood infrastructure is improving.

On April 2nd, the World Changers organization visited Wabasso and I introduced them to eight households that would benefit from their services of making minor, exterior repairs to homes. April 4th was the monthly community meeting at which the FDOT was present to discuss high-level information regarding the widening of CR 510, which bisects the community of West Wabasso. It was a very important meeting due to the fact that the project is in the Planning, Development, and Evaluation (PD& E) phase and public input can influence the scope and design of the project. Residents had many questions and all seven of the FDOT representative fielded the questions well and also committed to attend a future community meeting for a more definitive presentation.

I attended the Martin County PACE meeting on April 11th and brought along a community leader from Wabasso named Billy Minnis. I think it was beneficial and hopefully inspiring for the community to hear about Indian River Countys experiences with the PACE EH process. Mr. Minnis was able to explain how the community involved themselves with PACE EH and I was able to tell them what was possible to achieve by utilizing the process.

On April 25th, I held a steering committee meeting at which we gave updates on the progress of ongoing projects and planned an agenda for the May community meeting. One topic of discussion at the meeting that was we need to applaud the government officials that have been involved in making improvements to the community. A few residents are still very bitter about wrongdoings of previous County Commissioners who made idle promises. In our meeting we decided to make it known that we appreciated all the gestures and actions that officials had taken to make projects a success. Personal thank-yous and applause at community meetings for officials were two ways we will demonstrate our gratitude. Peace, political stability and reconciliation are not too much to ask for. They are the minimum that a decent society provides.- George Mitchell

Past Indian River County Updates

August and July, 2004

June, 2004

May, 2004

Media Coverage

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.

May 1, 2005 - Water System on its way to Wabasso