Fire Chief Joe Boney says that the all-volunteer West End Hose Co. No. 3, more popularly known as the Biloxi fire museum, has activated its online GoFundMe account and is seeking donations for a relief trip in the works to help flood victims in Louisiana.
Boney says money is needed to help feed the five to nine volunteers from Biloxi who plan to spend several days in Independence, La., beginning next week to help clean homes of flood-related debris. Independence is a small community of 1,600, north of Hammond. Boney is a friend of the Independence fire chief, who marshalled his community’s efforts to help Biloxi in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
“We used GoFundMe on our relief trip to help the tornado victims in Three Forks (a small Mississippi community), and we were able to rent a small front end loader that made a huge impact,” Boney said. “A piece of equipment like that can cost $1,500 to $1,800 for three days, but it helps us do 50 to 60 times more work. Otherwise, we have to do everything by hand.”
Meanwhile, Boney and Police Chief John Miller are working with Harrison County Sheriff Troy Peterson and D’Iberville City Manager Clay Jones to organize a multi-jurisdictional relief effort.
“Everything’s still being organized at this point,” Boney said. “Our experience has been that with what we do – the cleaning up, mucking, etc. – is best done after insurance companies and FEMA have done inspections. What we do is we coordinate with the fire chief or emergency manager and they tell us where we can make the biggest impact, and they steer us in the right direction on accommodations.”
Added the Biloxi fire chief: “We never want to be a drain on any resources.”
Visit the GoFundMe account
Budget discussions to begin Tuesday
Members of the Biloxi City Council will get their first look at parts of Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2017 during a special meeting Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. at City Hall.
The mayor and council members are expected to hammer out a spending plan for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 over the next month and have a budget in place by mid-September.
A regularly scheduled meeting will take place at 1:30 p.m.
Both meetings are at City Hall and open to the public.
A third meeting that was scheduled for Tuesday, when council members would have considered the nomination of Paul Tisdale as the city’s new chief administrative officer, will be canceled.
Said Gilich: “We’re still working out the details on that.”
See the agendas for the Tuesday meetings
MDOT to temporarily close lanes on I-110 next week
MDOT has announced that workers will temporary close lanes on I-110 beginning next week at nighttime to allow for inspection of the span of the high-rise bridge.
Sections of the northbound and southbound lanes at the I-110 draw bridge will be closed Monday, Aug. 22 through Thursday, Aug. 25 from 8Â p.m. to 5 a.m. Â Work will continue the following week, Monday, Aug. 29 through Thursday, Sept. 1 from 8Â p.m. to 5 a.m. Â At least one lane will remain open to traffic during the work.
No work will be done during daytime or on weekends to avoid peak traffic volumes.
MDOT will also have boats in the water near the draw bridge for inspection and safety.
See the status of road work throughout Biloxi
News and notes
Week in review:Â To find detailed reports from the Police and Community Development departments, covering the week of Aug. 8-14, click here.
Public meetings:Â The City Council and other city boards have regularly scheduled meetings that are open to the public. Â To find out where and when, click here.Â
