February 27, 2007

Storm-battered Cameron, Grand Chenier libraries reopen

BY JEREMY HARPER - AMERICAN PRESS

CAMERON - Local and state officials hailed the reopening of two Cameron Parish library branches as a strong sign the battered coastal community is overcoming Hurricane Rita.
    
The buildings in Grand Chenier and Cameron replace libraries wiped out by Rita, and, according to the officials who helped mark the branch openings Monday, form the technological and intellectual core of communities still struggling to recover from the 2005 storm.
    
"I don't think it's farfetched to say a library is a community's soul," said state librarian Rebecca Hamilton.
    
The fully equipped temporary buildings are a substantial upgrade from the three tiny bookmobile trucks that were stationed where libraries once stood.   

"We came back to Cameron and saw that we had nothing left but a pile of bricks and a couple of books in the mud," said library board president Cindi Sellars. "It's hard to believe that we've come so far."
    
The temporary branches were funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the group's Gulf Coast Libraries Project, a $12.3 million initiative to replace hurricane-damaged libraries.    

In Cameron, the first parish to receive funds under the program, the Microsoft founder's philanthropy donated two furnished temporary buildings with computers and Internet service for three years and will pay to staff four parish library branches. It has also donated another high-tech bookmobile.    

After the three years are up, the parish will keep everything but the buildings.    

The Cameron branch has six notebook computers with wireless Internet access and two desktops and a full staff to keep it running 10 hours a day, eight hours on Friday.    

"We have four people here, so now you can actually take a day off," said Cameron branch manager Delia "Dee Dee" Sanders, who, after Rita struck, staffed one of the bookmobiles.

Sense of community    

Rita's wind and water destroyed the branches in Cameron, Grand Chenier and Johnson Bayou. The Hackberry and Grand Lake branches farther north suffered less-serious damage and have been open for service.    

The new, larger buildings will allow library officials to host a full calendar of community events and classes, including exercise classes, domino tournaments and tutoring sessions for students.    

Cameron resident Brenda Conner said she plans to take advantage of the exercise classes and the larger selection of books. The new branches create an increased sense of community, she said.   

"I visited the bookmobile, and this is much better. I think it's going to help a lot," she said.    

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, who attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony in Cameron, said a library is a linchpin of any community and a place "where our families come together, not only to be together but to learn together."   

"Hospitals, libraries, schools and playgrounds,  those are the things that make our communities, with, of course, our faith-based organizations and churches," Landrieu said.    

U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., who has decried so-called Rita amnesia, said it was nice that Cameron Parish was noticed on a national level.    

"This is right at the focal point at what we need to keep our children and grandchildren in our communities," Boustany said.    

Many public officials praised Library Director Charlotte Trosclair for her ability to keep the library system intact despite the catastrophic damage.    

Trosclair removed the bookmobile and electronic equipment from the Cameron branch before the storm and is coordinating the plans to build permanent replacements for the destroyed branches.    

"Charlotte, who has boundless energy and optimism, has been tireless," Hamilton said.    

The donations will be administered through Southeastern Library Network Inc., or SOLINET, an Atlanta-based nonprofit library cooperative chosen by the Gates Foundation.    

"It's just amazing with all the hard work you're doing ... how the parish is coming back,"said Mary Ellin Santiago, director for the Gulf Coast Libraries Project.