This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

Some cut in line tor trailers
Page 1 ot 1
Publication: Biloxi Sun Herald; Date:2005 Oct 27; Section:Front Page; Page Number: Al
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ActivePapgr"
Some cut in line for trailers
By r yan LaFONTAiNE rlafontaine@sun herald. com
WAVELAND — Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, local governments were given first crack at temporary housing for city employees and emergency workers.
But a list obtained by the Sun Herald shows several names of people who were not city employees before the Aug. 29 hurricane, but still received priority housing through their local governments.
Some who received among the first FEMA trailers still are not employed by a local municipality.
Since the storm, 201 travel trailers from FEMA have been installed at Buccaneer State Park in Waveland, a move designed to give shelter to police and fire personnel and city officials in order to keep local municipalities operating after the storm.
Although several Waveland police officers are on the list, at least two trailers are assigned to an officer's son who is a high school senior.
Kathy Pinn, who before the storm owned That Cute Little Shop on Coleman Avenue, is on the list as a Waveland employee.
Leroy Hawkins and Leroy Hawkins Jr. also appear on Waveland's list, along with a newspaper reporter, Bennie Shallbetter of The Sea Coast Echo. The Hawkins family has performed contract work for the city
"Right now, Kathy Pinn and the younger Hawkins are both employees," Waveland Mayor Tommy Longo said. "And we felt that (the newspaper reporter) was a key person in the community."
Longo said Waveland first requested about 75 trailers, and later asked for a few more.
"It was simply to give our first responders and city employees a place to live," he said, adding the city later offered automatic housing to local doctors, school administrators, and other people, who Longo called "key" figures in the town.
Debra Mason, the wife of former Waveland Mayor John Mason, is also among the Buccaneer trailer residents who bypassed the long FEMA lines for temporary housing.
Mason said she received a trailer because her nephewin-law is a part-time firefighter in Waveland.
What's more, many trailers are still unoccupied, and Longo said at least 30 are empty because the keys have been misplaced.
With hundreds of Hancock County residents still sleeping in tents along the roadside, and the weather turning cold, some are suggesting the city employees scoot over and make room.
"As our people leave, we're rotating other people, regular citizens, into these trailers," Longo said. "We had an elderly couple living in a tent and we put them in here; we're trying to get people off the cold ground.
"For the last week or so, we've been trying to get citizens, who are in dire need of a place to live, and put them in here."
Hancock County officials said they did not ask for trailers, and no county employee is living at Buccaneer.
However, at least three names on the list of requested trailers are known to be current, or former, county employees.
Bay St. Louis requested 56 trailers, and Gus McKay, who is coordinating the Bay's trailers at Buccaneer, said the homes are strictly for emergency workers, city employees and their families.
"My mother was living with us, so we brought her, and a few of the police officers have their moms here," McKay said. "Other than that, it's just city employees here."
http://activepaper.olivesoftware.com/APD26302/PrintArt.asp?SkinFolder=SunHerald	10/27/2005