-->

House Hunting

By GINA KINSLOW Glasgow Daily Times Glasgow Daily Times Sun Aug 29, 2010, 07:37 AM CDT

A house is needed for people whose homes have been destroyed by fire, flood or some other disaster.

The house, which must be donated, needs to be in Barren County, and it should be large enough for six people to stay in for up to two weeks.

Stacy Janes, director of the Barren-Metcalfe County Chapter of the American Red Cross, is spearheading the search for a house, which will become one among several that make up a new program called the South Central Kentucky Fire Rescue House. The houses will serve as temporary shelters for disaster victims while they search for permanent housing.

Janes organized a meeting of officials with the city of Glasgow, Barren, Metcalfe and Green counties Friday to discuss the development of the program.

She told the group about a call she received Thursday from a woman whose home had burned. The woman can’t make repairs to the home because her landlord is out of the country.

Janes was able to arrange a four-day hotel stay for the woman through the Red Cross.

“As of Monday, she has to be out of the hotel. She has no vehicle. Her house is in distance of where she goes to school, but we can’t help her at the Red Cross past that,” she said. “If the [fire rescue] house was already up and going she would have a place to stay for the next two weeks.”

Janes came up with the idea for the program after speaking with Skip Ockomon, a firefighter in Madison County, Ind., who helped developed the Madison County Fire Rescue House in 2009 after a family there became displaced due to a tragic fire that took the lives of two toddlers.

“Through helping them we saw we needed something else. We needed a fire rescue house for fire victims,” he said.

Ockomon said the Red Cross does a great job.

“But when you have a fatality, or even lose everything, you need a little bit more time,” he said. “So what we came up with is a plan for a two-week stay at a fire rescue house.”

The Madison County Fire Rescue House opened on Sept. 29, 2009.

“I thought we would maybe use it one or two times. This house is like a life preserver. You never want to use it, but you’re sure glad when you got it,” Ockomon said. “From Sept. 29 until today we had nine families to come through that house.”

Similar houses opened this past weekend in neighboring Indiana communities.

The program operates solely from donations, so that means someone will have to be willing to donate the house, as well as furnishings and household supplies.

Ockomon told area officials Friday he is willing to make a donation to help get such a house started in the Glasgow-Barren County community.

“Our goal is to just fill a void,” he said.

Janes mentioned her idea to start the South Central Kentucky Fire Rescue House program to Emory Kidd, emergency management director for Metcalfe County, who told her his county may have a house that could be used for the project. Kidd contacted Metcalfe County Judge-Executive Greg Wilson about his idea to offer the house at the county lake.

“When Stacy brought the idea to Emory, and Emory brought the idea to me, I thought it was a very good idea,” Wilson said. “We understand the need for it. We maybe need to look at broadening that to other types of disaster.”

Work to repair the house begins Monday. Janes has set a target date of Oct. 9 to have it ready for those who need it.

The Columbia Avenue Church or Christ has a shelter, but it is often full, Janes said. Aside from the church, there is no emergency housing in Glasgow, she said.

Glasgow Mayor Darrell Pickett said he thought it was a good idea, and added, “I think we need to do it.”

He wanted to know who would be in charge of the local program.

“I haven’t found anyone else to do it yet, so I guess I am,” Janes said.

The Madison County Fire Rescue House has a board of directors that oversees the program there, and Ockomon suggested the same thing be done locally.

“Get your board, get your cheerleader, you’ve got a mayor who is cooperating, who is willing to come to meetings every once in a while,” he said. “The best thing, if you can work with the cities and the counties, it’s good because it can open the doors for you to do a lot of good things, along with the private industry coming in too.”

Tony Richey, emergency management director for Barren County, agreed with Wilson and said he would like to see the house used by victims of any disaster.

“I think it would be a fantastic thing. Anytime you can help people out it’s a good thing. I think it would be a great idea if we can just get the people involved,” Richey said.

Glasgow Fire Chief Bobby Bunnell said there is a need for such a place when fire victims are displaced.

“It’s just going to have to be a community effort, with a lot of community partners on board to make it happen,” he said.

Barren County Judge-Executive Davie Greer said she was behind the idea 100 percent.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea. I just feel like when it is publicized and people know what we’re wanting to do … , I think we will get the help that’s needed to get it done,” she said.

Tony Curry, EMS director in Green County, said his county would benefit from having such a house.

“I think it would be a great service for the county,” he said. “Every time you see a tragedy in a community, every store you go into you see a little jar there with money in it. If people would donate to something like this, then that is doing the same thing.”