LARRI

LARRI (Lakeshore AREA Regional Recovery in Indiana) was official created yesterday at the second meeting of the Long Term Recovery committee. LARRI is the Long Term Recovery organization created to partner with the people of Lake, Porter and LaPorte Counties as they seek to restore their homes to a safe, secure and sanitary condition.

At the meeting we adopted the name LARRI, a set of Policies and Procedures, as well as elected officers to a two year term. Elected as Chair: Steven Conger, Pastor of Ridge United Methodist Church in Munster Indiana; Vice Chair: Gary Olund, of Northwest Indiana Community Action Corporation; Secretary: Gordon Johnson, CEO of American Red Cross of Northwest Indiana, and Treasurer: Sharon Kish, Director of Porter County United Way. The seven chairs of the sub committees along with the officers and four at-large members will serve as a steering committee for LARRI.

Also adopted by the organization was a job description for a Director of LARRI (Disaster Coordinator). We are seeking persons who might be interested in this position. Persons interested should contact Steve Conger (219-757-1109) or steve@ridgeumc.org with a resume before the end of November. The steering committee hopes to have this critical position filled by mid-December.

We also discussed our application to Lilly for funds which is due next week. We have currently received $250,000 from Lilly and are applying for round 2 funding (application due November 21). We will keep you informed on the status of this grant application.

Wendy’s of Northwest Indiana made a presentation to LARRI of $9,100 in gift cards. The money was raised at local restaurants in the weeks since the flood. Thank you Wendy’s for your generous donation.

NEXT STEPS

The clean up phase is almost complete! It was reported that about 30 or so houses still need to be cleaned and those should be done over the next two weekends. We know that houses continue to be identified that need our assistance! Thanks to Kathy and her crew who have worked so hard in assuring that all of the homes in Northwest Indiana are "mucked out", and sanitized!

We are very concerned about homes without heat. The Construction/Volunteer management team is working with Case Management to identify the immediate needs and get working furnaces into those homes that need them.

Dates of future meetings:

Construction/Volunteers — Thursday (11/20), 10 AM, Lake Business Center 9200 Calumet Avenue, Munster.
Contact Dale Fieldhouse: fieldhouserefrig@aol.com

Publicity — EVERY Thursday, 3:30 PM Porter County United Way.
Contact: Byron Kaiser: pastor@hammondfumc.org

Spiritual and Emotional Care — December 3, 8:30 AM Geminus Corporation. Contact: Sandy Appleby: sandy.appleby@geminus.org

Preparedness — December 10, 2 PM Lake Area United Way

LARRI — December 9, 8:30 AM Duneland Conference Center, Portage. Contact: Steve Conger: steve@ridgeumc.org