P.O. Box 24378 New Orleans, LA 70184 504.324.2270
District Five Recovery News
Minutes of the Infrastructure Committee Meeting March 28, 2006
Freddy Yoder, Chairman
A representative of the United States Postal Service came to our meeting at the request of the chairman and explained the new system of Cluster Box Units (CBU) that is being put into place by the USPS. The CBU’s come in 3 sizes, 8, 12 and 16 boxes. Employees of the USPS will be in the Lakeview area starting 3/27/2006 to find places for the boxes. After CBU’s are installed on your block, you may then go to the Station at Florida Ave./St. Bernard to pick up your key at no charge. Once you have picked up the key, your mail will be delivered in your block at the CBU. Your neighborhood needs to be 50% populated to be considered for a box.
The next step as more of the population comes back is the curb side postal boxes in front of your home on city property There will be no service to individual homes as was previously done. All mail boxes will be at curb side where the postman can deliver mail from his vehicle.
Post office boxes from the Lakeview Office will eventually go to the Florida Ave./St. Bernard location where we now pick up our mail.
May 1, 2006 will be the day that the USPS will start to have your 2nd class mail and magazines at the location that you now receive your regular mail. . The USPS can only hold your mail for 10 days. After that it is discarded.
Businesses will be receiving “come inside” service for pick up and delivery of their mail
If you would like to see a CBU, there are some on St. Bernard Ave. between Harrison and Mirabeau, also in that area on Park Island ,
UNO has 15 faculty volunteers to help Lakeview to return. Working on our committee are
8000 Resident Information Cards have been distributed to the Lakeview residents and almost 1600 have been returned to date.
Utilities Committee: Letter to the Sewerage and Water Board detailing this committee’s concerns about the state of the system and the lack of planning has been drafted in 3 forms for Freddy’s approval. Also addressed in the letter are our concerns about the lack of stand by overtime for employees to man the pumps and for emergency problems that occurs after 5 PM and before 9 AM.
Montgomery The Sewerage and Water Board is not under City Hall control.
Drainage Committee – Phillips and Jordan had the contract to clean out and vacuum drainage lines. Montgomery Watson was contracted to do the work. Vacuum trucks worked some of the lines. Obviously on Robert E. Lee they didn’t do a good job. We need to try and get a handle on what lines were vacuumed. We also need additional information on the contract to clean the lines. Need to know what has been done and what needs to be done.
Entergy – High pressure gas service is ready to be restored to the customers. Low pressure gas service still has water in the lines in some areas. Will be pumped out in the next 3 or 4 weeks.
Electricity – Pretty much everybody should have the capability to get service except near the break.
Cox Communication: Services - video, internet and telephone. Map on present service can be seen at {HYPERLINK http://www.cox.com/louisiana/images/nodes/neworleans.gif} This map was presented at the meeting and was of interest to everyone. For additional info on restoration efforts in your area, call 504-304-1148 or visit http://www.aboutcox.com. This info will be updated each Monday.
BellSouth Telephone: Services - voice, video, internet
90% of the customers in the Lake Central Office are with service, 280,282,283,284,286,289,816 exchanges.
Customers out of the Mid City Central Office have an estimated service date of 5/14/2006. Exchanges are 260,482,484,485,486,488.
The remaining areas of District 5 have estimated service beginning after 5/14/2006 depending upon repopulation with some exceptions.
BellSouth is not just replacing damaged copper phone lines but is installing a new fiber optic system that is less vulnerable to damage, more reliable and capable of offering additional services.
District 5 encompasses several allocation areas (AA) or zones; all AA’s are tracked throughout the city for requests for service and/or trouble reports. They are ranked accordingly and in turn drive what solutions are derived and resources deployed.
Transportation Committee: Encouraging RTA to use small buses to bring people from Lakeview to the CBD. Many Jefferson Parish residents parked in Lakeview to use this service prior to Katrina and thus spent money for their grocery, gas and other services before leaving.
Portable Community Administration Trailers or “Little City Halls” - Finally got movement out of the City. The city through FEMA will purchase 2 trailers, one for the Delgado Campus and on for the Robert E. Lee Shopping Center back parking lot. Plans are still being worked out with Delgado, as the City wants 18 months and Delgado wants 12 months. There will be a meeting of all concerned in Baton Rouge on Thursday March 30 and we will send a representative. Hopefully the City will then go forward with the training schedule for the volunteers.
Environmental Air, Soil and Water Quality
Our representative will contact the Corps of Engineers and ask for a copy of their latest tests in the Lakeview area. If we are unable to obtain this info, we may have to decide if we should do testing on our own. This info is very important for our residents to be aware of.
Street Repairs
Can’t get a real person on the phone in Street Department. All capitol projects are being suspended. They are in the process of cleaning up Fleur-de-Lis
Street Lights – Major feeders and side streets have. If lights are broken, it will be fixed.
Power to traffic lights is on. The city has the money to fix the lights and is working on it.
Garbage Service – Conflicting reports about garbage pick up as to whether it is in the alley or curb side. Will check again.
Waste Management will provide service on Fridays to most of Lakeview. In the area near City Park Avenue pick up is on Thursday. Eight garbage bags or two 32 gallon garbage containers is the limit for one residence. Waste Management had 2 sites to dump the garbage before Katrina, now it has only one on the West Bank.
Police and Fire - Both are status quo from the last report. Fire Department is the first responders in medical emergencies. Police say that looting is our biggest problem. It was suggested that we consider contributions and man power to getting the Harrison Avenue Fire House restored. The city has no money to reopen it. Right now there is a calculation of so many residents per fireman and until we repopulate, we don’t make the quota. It was suggested that perhaps another state could adopt our fire station.
