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Bay St. Louis in Jonesboro |
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Wednesday, May 29, 2007 View KAIT-8 News Story
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David Stout | The Sun
Jonesboro Mayor Doug Formon presents a key to the city of Jonesboro to Eddie Favre, mayor of the coastal Mississippi city of Bay St. Louis. Favre and a handful of others from Mississippi attended the Tuesday Rotary Club of Jonesboro meeting to update Rotarians on progress toward a community hall in the coastal town and to say thank you for their assistance. | Rotary Club lends hand to Katrina-hit Miss. town
By Amanda Harris
JONESBORO -- The Rotary Club of Jonesboro had special guests Tuesday with exciting news.
City officials and Rotary Club members from the Mississippi coastal town of Bay St. Louis, Miss., attended the noon meeting to announce they have been invited to submit an application for nearly $4 million to fund construction of a community hall.
The hall is, in part, the product of much planning and consideration on the part of several Jonesboro Rotarians.
After Jonesboro Rotarians helped with the initial wave of survival supplies, they wanted to help with something permanent, said Bay St. Louis Mayor Eddie Favre.
After much consideration they settled on a community center, or community hall as the people of the coastal Mississippi town refer to it.
It looks as though funding will fall into place for the initial costs of construction and furnishing. Meanwhile, monetary donations will be put toward the ongoing maintenance and operation of the facility, Favre said.
So far Rotarians have raised more than $800,000 toward the building, which will serve the people of Bay St. Louis as a symbol of resilience and hope for a brighter tomorrow, a beacon of light, so to speak.
Corky Hadden, a Bay St. Louis resident and Rotarian, called the proposed hall "a symbol of a community coming back better than it was before."
He said the building will also stand as a meeting place for social functions and could serve as a relief shelter in the event of another disaster. Plus, he added, the building is slated for construction in a part of town the city hopes to revitalize.
Once complete the building will consist of a meeting hall with a kitchen, a banquet hall that will seat 400, gallery for the main hall, restrooms, outdoor courtyard spaces, several meeting rooms and office space to be used for the local economic development agencies, according to the Rotary Club of Bay St. Louis Web site.
After the storm
Immediately after Hurricane Katrina ripped through the coastal town and boyhood home of Jonesboro resident Bob Warner, he went there to see the devastation first hand.
He vowed to help the people of Bay St. Louis recover from what has been called "the worst natural disaster in American history."
The three Rotary Clubs in Jonesboro sprang into action, sending truckload after truckload of supplies to those in the storm-torn community.
Months later they made the trip to Bay St. Louis to provide Thanksgiving dinner to hundreds who would have otherwise gone without the traditional holiday feast.
Since then Jonesboro has sent four police cars and a fire truck. Meanwhile, Rotarians have sent other materials, books for the library and computers for the schools, among other items.
"You can certainly be proud of what you've done for Hancock County and Bay St. Lou-is," said a Mississippi official.
amandah@jonesborosun.com |
Copyright 2007 Jonesboro Sun |
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