| FEMA continues to buy more trailers
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Although hurricane evacuees are being pushed to find permanent housing, the Federal Emergency Management Agency continues to buy more trailers. FEMA has spent nearly 30 million (m) million dollars since July on two thousand new travel trailers and mobile homes that are handicapped-accessible. The agency is also seeking proposals for another 15-hundred. But fewer than half of the two-thousand already delivered were occupied as of last week. Of the ten-thousand or so handicapped-accessible travel trailers and mobile homes in FEMA's inventory, just over half house people. The rest are in storage. Jack Torrance is executive director of the Louisiana Recreational and Used Motor Vehicle Commission, which regulates trailer sales in the state.
X Games open to all
Action sports athletes are constantly looking for ways to push boundaries, whether it's completing a 1200 on a snowboard or doing a backflip on a snowmobile. Disabled skiers are no different, taking their adaptive skis from race courses to the boxes and rails of terrain parks, even hucking over 40-foot gaps and dropping off 30-foot cliffs -- on one-track skis. Now, after years of getting gnarly in relative obscurity, they'll get a chance to show what they can do on a much grander stage: the Winter X Games. When the games open today, disabled skiers will be right there next to the hippest and most talented action sports athletes in the world, charging down the same courses and pulling off many of the same tricks on their sitdown skis. Mono skier X was a demo sport at the Winter X Games two years ago and was such a hit that organizers added it to the lineup of high-flying snowboards, skis and snowmobiles at the four-day action sports extravaganza at Aspen's Buttermilk Mountain.
Don't know how good they have it, 1/24
Having moved here a couple of years ago from Atlanta, I am constantly impressed by the community support provided by our Hernando County Sheriff's Office. The technology and proactive approach it utilizes is quite a refreshing change for us, coming from the "Crime Capital of the World," and truly outstanding for a relatively small community such as ours. The low crime rate is one of the reasons we chose Hernando County to call our home. But, since we've been here, I have to admit I'm disappointed at the way residents whine about just about anything instead of remembering how lucky we all are to live in an area with low crime, relatively little traffic and gorgeous weather year-round. Yes, the Code Red calls Jan. 12 came a little late at night. And the followup call the next morning came a little early.
First Lady hands over eye surgery microscope for Suddie Hospital
First Lady Varshnie Jagdeo yesterday handed over to Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy an eye surgery microscope and hospital supplies for the Suddie Hospital on the Essequibo Coast. The handing over ceremony took place at the First Lady's office on Hadfield Street. According to the First Lady, the microscope was donated by the Government of the People's Republic of China. The donation also included glasses provided by the Guyana Fundraising Trust, skin cream from the Seva International; surgical instruments, and paediatric wheelchairs, all donated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Asked about the value of the donations, Mrs Jagdeo said that she couldn't ascertain this, but she knew that the microscope alone was worth "thousands of US dollars." .
South Elgin weighs parks upgrades
SOUTH ELGIN -- Village parks could be more accessible for those with disabilities, a study reported this week. While Jim Reuter, the village's parks and recreation department director, said that for the most part the village's 31 parks studied comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, there are about $145,000 in projects that would make them more so. The study, Reuter said, looked at the village's "active" parks, with play and recreation areas, but not at its wetland parks. The village board received the study results Monday. "We needed the analysis to make sure we are ADA-compliant," Reuter said this week. He will take that study to the village board's park committee and use it to create a five-year plan to address those needs, Reuter said. "It is a tool for budgeting," Reuter said.
|
