BAY ST. LOUIS- COTTAGES CAN STAY

FINALLY! COMING TO THEIR SENSES –

After many, many months of back-and-forth messing around, the Bay St. Louis City Council passed an ordinance allowing residents of the MEMA cottages to keep their homes. They must meet the requirements to buy their homes from the state but they can now keep them in residential areas. Initially, the council was only going to allow them if they were moved to a "trailer park" which was totally asinine and counter productive to recovery.

Councilmen still wanted to have their way with some of the items on the planning & zoning commissioner's list of recommendations, but they did ease up on some things. People in the cottages now have more time and less limitations on when and how they obtain the various required permits. Time has always been of essence to matters concerning recovery on the coast. It has especially been so with lower income, elerly, disabled, or single-parent families.

Originally, there were so many stipulations being applied to the cottages as permanent housing that it seemed people were being blatantly discriminated against. Recovery was being denied! Now though, the deadline for people to comply with the new "rules" is Aug. 31, 2009. . . FOUR YEARS AFTER KATRINA! About time, Council people!