DAPHNE, Ala. — On Nov. 19, 2009, The Shoulder — a private, Christian-based, substance-abuse rehabilitation program for Baldwin County adult males — sent the Federal Emergency Management Agency plans for a new location.

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, damaging properties, destroying homes and demolishing The Shoulder’s facility of 17 years on the Causeway. The service was forced to shut down for around a month before moving temporarily into the old Albert P. Brewer Development Center on Pine Hill Road in Daphne.

The non-profit organization needs FEMA approval — and funds — to begin building a facility close to the current location.

Staffers thought the approval process — which comprises environmental and historical studies — would take no more than 60 days, allowing them to build the facility in time. The 60-day mark was Jan. 18.

Today, however, is day 358, and the approval process is not complete.

“We haven’t been given a reason other than ‘we’re shorthanded and there were other disasters that happened this year,’” said Rita Byers, board member of The Shoulder. “We’ve been given the runaround.”

Mary Hudak, FEMA Southest Region spokesperson, sees it differently.

“Nobody has put them off,” she said. “We’ve explained many times to everybody who’s asked us about the project, exactly where it is in the process. They are not understanding that there is a normal course of the process that has to be completed before we move their funds.”

See the rest of this story in the Nov. 12 edition of The Bulletin.