Rebuilding program lacked experience

Media images of flooded homeowners were used as “Disaster Poster Children” to help the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation raise millions of dollars in flood recovery aid from the public. Acting Foundation President Karla Twedt-Ball's husband and brother-in-law were then given somewhere around a million dollars of that donated money to fund the Block by Block program.

When you add the millions of dollars the program has received from other sources such as sales tax revenue, state tax money and a $1 million donation by a local businessman, there is no excuse for not knowing that asbestos and lead paint (in flood-damaged houses) were issues that needed to be addressed.

It may have been a grand idea but the directors were just not qualified to run this program. It may be years before the actual damage is known. Small children may become ill because proper precautions were overlooked.

Block by Block put volunteers and homeowners at risk by failing to follow required asbestos testing. What else did it forget?

A better use of the donated funds would have been to fund experienced contractors rather than those who had little or no experience in the building trade. This is a gross example of nepotism and misuse of flood recovery funds entrusted to the Community Foundation.

Frank King

Cedar Rapids