The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 93

Thursday, October 2i, 1999 www.herald.corn 1 II Legislators seek more say over airport independent authority proposed to run MIA BY STEVE BOUSQUET sbousquetherald com TALLAHASSEE Revelations of waste, inefficiency and insider influence at Miami International Airport have drawn the attention of Miami-Dade legislators, who began maneuvering Wednesday to have more say over how the airport is run. Rep. J. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, is' asking state auditors to investigate whether purchasing laws were broken in the awarding of no-bid contracts at the airport, and Rep. Luis Rojas, R-Hialeah, asked the House to draft a bill creating an independent airport authority to manage MIA.

Villalobos, who oversees $3.5 billion in state spending as chairman of a House budget panel on criminal justice, said he would ask a legislative committee that oversees the state auditor general to examine whether the county is handing out no-bid contracts legally. He said he and Sen. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, also discussed whether the airport should be required by law to make all contracts subject to competitive bidding. I dont want to micromanage the airport, Villalobos said, But we do oversee the auditor general. We want to look at specific issues and see if A LITTLE HELP: Sweetwater residents line up to receive snack bags from the Salvation Army.

The bags contained fruit juices, MARICE COHN BAND HERALD STAFF fruits, chips and other snacks. 1 counties declared disaster A toll-free hot line -1-800-462-9029 was switched on immediately to register claims from residents seeking disaster relief. BY MARIKA LYNCH, STEVE BOUSQUET AND GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES gepstemherald.com President Clinton declared Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and 15 other Florida counties a disaster area Wednesday, starting the federal-assistance process for thousands of people whose homes and properties were damaged by Hurricane Irene. A toll-free hot line 1-800-462-9029 was switched on immediately to register claims from residents seeking disaster relief. Weve got operators in three sites taking calls, said James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Weve already taken 65,000 applications from North Carolina since the beginning of Hurricane Floyd, and thats in less than 30 (days. I wouldnt doubt if theres an equal amount from Florida. FEMA will take applications for assistance from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week until further notice.

Homeowners, renters and business owners can apply for loans or grants to fix their homes and cars, pay housing costs, replace lost items or cover medical bills. i Miami-Dade recovery workers said some standing water will remain another week. In the 8V2 Square Mile Area of the East Everglades, sugar farmer Barbara Fernandez still had no electricity and the water in her yard remained as high as the running board on her friends monster truck. 1 There are dead chickens and pows floating around, said Fernandez, of 11500 SW 192nd Ave. Were just doing the best we can.

I really need to wash my hair, but I cant do it. Theres not enough bottled water to rinse it. Forecasters said the same weather front that will nudge the latest storm Hurricane Jose away from Florida could bring some rain to South Florida today and Friday. Forecaster Bob Pifer of the National Weather Service in Miami said the amounts to residents of Brevard, Collier, Glades, Hendry, Highlands, Indian River, Martin, Monroe, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Polk, St. Lucie, Seminole and Volusia counties.

Dave Rodham, a FEMA coordinating officer, said residents should clean up their property as soon as possible and contact their insurance companies. Rodham encouraged homeowners who have insurance to contact FEMA anyway because they might be underinsured. People should also not assume that their homeowners policy covers flood damage. FEMAs application process takes about two weeks. It takes up to three days to process the paperwork and another seven to 10 days for housing inspectors to visit houses.

Shirley Collins, chief of the states bureau of recovery, said the disaster declaration means families can get temporary housing grants while waiting for their loan applications to be approved. FEMA will make grants of up to $13,600 to families whose basic needs cannot be met through insurance or a home loan from the Small Business Administration or volunteer agencies such as the Red Cross or Salvation Army. We want to encourage everybody to call, to spend their 20 minutes on the line, and the questions will be answered on an individual basis, Rodham said. LOST EVERYTHING Maria Molina, 61, and husband Ce-cilio, 60, lost everything on the first floor of their apartment at 10912 SW Third St. in Sweetwater.

Now Cecilio is suffering allergic reactions to all the dirt and mildew. Without flood insurance, the couple said they will turn to areas FEMA. If its going to be a grant, Maria Molina cautioned. If its a loan, I have no money to pay it back now. FEMAs Witt said he was particularly concerned about crop damage in Miami-Dade.

One hundred million dollars is pretty severe, he said. Im going to call Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and ask him to get his folks down to do an assessment of crop damages. As the crop losses grow, so does the expected impact on migrant farmworkers. More than 200 crop pickers are out of work, according to a survey by agencies in the area. By the end of the winter season, that number is expected to grow to half of the estimated 16,000 farmworkers who arrive annually, said Arturo Lopez, executive director of the Coalition of Florida Farmworker Organizations.

OUT OF WORK Isabel Roblero, a mother of three who picks watercress, will be out of work for at least a month. Roblero, 27, doesnt know how she will pay her $400 rent at Everglades Village, a housing complex for migrant workers in South Dade. Its not that I dont want to pay, I just dont have work, Roblero said. More than 300 people in a similar dilemma gathered at the villages community center late Wednesday to hear about the assistance they can get. Its difficult to determine exactly how many workers are in similar straits, because not all crops were damaged in the same way, said Susan Reyna, executive director of Mujer a South Dade social service agency.

For sure, workers who were already picking okra and cucumbers are jobless because these crops were decimated. Herald staff writers Ana Acle, Martin Merzer and Charles Rabin contributed to this report. hard work (Avoid getting copper on bromeliads; it can kill them.) Follow the same steps in righting a palm as for other trees. Drench around roots with a fungicide. Because palms draw potassium and other nutrients from aging fronds, leave as many intact fronds as possible, removing only those twisted over the growing point.

Water and mulch, and keep the root system moist, not soggy, for several weeks. Use a foliar spray to fertilize. And remember, palms grow slowly. They could take a year to recover. OTHER PLANTS Examine recently planted trees and shrubs.

The storm loosened their planting holes, and they may need more soil. Firmly pack the soil again. I Orchids. Use a spray of the fun-gicidebactericide Physan or a strong solution of Captan. Spray plants well, especially where leaves may be broken or crushed.

generally would not be considered significant, but they could complicate flood victims recovery efforts. What we really need is lower humidity, so some of that standing water evaporates, Pifer said. That could arrive over the weekend or at the beginning of next week, he said, along with somewhat cooler temperatures. Also Wednesday: Even as FEMA stepped up its ac- tivity, other storm recovery efforts were winding down. Miami-Dade shut down its rumor control hot line and directed calls to Team Metro at 305-375-5656.

The National Guard still had 110 workers distributing food and water to folks in flooded areas. Mosquito spraying was to step up by weeks end. The Florida Division of Emergency Management released preliminary figures showing that about 2,800 homes in nine counties were left uninhabitable because of damage from Irene. The largest number of damaged homes was in Broward with Miami-Dade second (879). Another 81 homes were unlivable in the Keys.

I State officials estimated damage to farms alone at $100 million, but they added its too soon to estimate the total damage from Hurricane Irene. To protect wildlife, the National Park Service is closing the Turner River and Bear Island Units of Big Cypress National Preserve to all hunting, airboats and off-road vehicles as of 6 p.m. Friday. The Corn Dance, Loop and Stairsteps Units are already closed. OTHER COUNTIES President Clintons disaster declaration also makes federal aid available large enough for the roots now above ground.

Remove any broken tap roots because they may keep the tree too high. Prune dead or mangled roots in the root ball. (If youre stressed over drying out your house, you can buy time by putting a wet towel over the trees out-of-the-ground roots to keep them alive.) Dont hat-rack limbs just to right the tree. They need leaves to produce food for growth, and you dont want to stress trees more than they already are. Raise the tree and put it back into the planting hole, watering soil around the roots.

If it lacks soil, augment with 70 percent sand30 percent muck. Brace the tree, then water well and mulch around the roots keeping mulch a few inches away from the trunk. Once you have the tree righted, bring some balance back to the canopy with judicious pruning. theyre complying with the state procurement laws. But Villalobos said he was willing to give the Miami-Dade Commission one last chance to reform the way the airport is run.

Its up to them to act, or we will, he said. I think its important that we keep their feet to the fire. Rojas, for his part, said he was moved to act not only by a series of articles in The Herald over the past several days, but by what he called brutal criticism of county commissioners from callers to Spanish-lan-guage talk radio. There is a crisis of confidence, Rojas said, referring to a string of local political scandals. Its just one thing after another.

Unless some elected official steps forward and says were going to try to change this, its just going to continue. When you have the No. 1 economic engine in the county, in essence, controlled by people who contribute thousands of dollars to political campaigns, its time to look at the system and clean it up. Rojas, a candidate for a west Dade Senate seat in 2000, has attempted to perform radical surgery on the political system before, without success. He was the House sponsor of a bill last session to make Hialeah a separate county.

Rojas said he would pattern his airport authority bill after the 1994 legislation that established the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, a 13-member board that manages four toll highways in the county. Seven of the expressway authority members are County Commission appointees; the other six are chosen by the governor. The lawmaker said he envisioned a panel of nonelected officials appointed by the governor who are beyond reproach. Stripping the Miami-Dade Commission of its power to run the airport is not likely to happen without a fight with likely opposition from some of the same lobbyists who now wield control over the awarding of airport contracts. County Attorney Robert Ginsburg said he did not anticipate such a move if county commissioners opposed it.

I dont think they can impose a structure on an unwilling Miami-Dade, but I dont anticipate that happening, Ginsburg said. In similar situations, such as the creation of the expressway authority and of the Public Health Trust, the Legislature adopted a law making the independent body subject to an ordinance approved by the county commission, Ginsburg said. Plants recovery will need some Brace the tree with line and stakes. If using heavy wire, put old hose around line that touches the tree to protect the bark. Braces may have to remain on the tree six months or more.

Water the root system every day for a week, then gradually reduce watering to every two days for a couple of weeks, then every three. When you see new shoots, fertilize lightly. (About one-half to one-fourth of the normal amount you would normally apply this time of year.) A good foliar spray including micronutrients will help the trees take in some nutrients through leaves rather than through stressed roots. PALMS I Palms. Unlike trees, palms have only a single growing point.

When whipped by wind, the interior bud can be damaged. So if the growing point is reachable, pour some copper fungicide into it to help prevent bud rot. BY GEORGIA TASKER gta5kerherald.c0m Irene did its share of rearranging the landscape. Heres how to help your storm-tossed plants recover. DAMAGED TREES Broken branches.

Hardwood trees with broken limbs will soon resprout. Prune by tracing a broken limb back to where it branches and make your cuts there, just beyond the raised area called the branch collar. I Water-soaked trees. To help fight root rot, the main danger for trees deprived of oxygen, drench the roots of trees (and shrubs) that have been in standing water with a fungicide such as Captan or Subdue (its expensive and hard to find), following directions on the label. Toppled trees.

Large trees require a professional; an arborist will do the job right. Small trees, 8 to 10 feet, can be righted easily. Make the planting hole.