By Staff
HABITAT HIGH n U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering spent the day working alongside other volunteers Saturday, helping with the construction of Habitat for Humanity's 34th home in Lauderdale County. Photo by Sharon White/The Meridian Star.
By Sharon White/The Meridian Star
March 18, 2001
Lifting rafters and nailing down two-by-fours might not be most people's idea of an exciting way to spend a Saturday morning.
But when the project is a Habitat for Humanity home for a needy neighbor, U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering said he wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else.
The house under construction on 41st Avenue and Ninth Street will belong to Beverly Burrage and her four girls, who range in age from 3 to 15 years old.
Burrage's house will be the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity's 34th house in Lauderdale County.
Rafters for the structure were positioned Saturday with help from Pickering, members of the Meridian Kiwanis Club and other volunteers.
Meridian Mayor John Robert Smith, who also working on the project, said Burrage's home is not the only construction work in store for the neighborhood in the future.
A grant that the City of Meridian and the Meridian Housing Authority have applied for will hopefully provide for the swapping of three housing authority properties for more traditional homes and duplexes one day, Smith said.
Sharon White is a staff writer for The Meridian Star. E-mail her at swhite@themeridianstar.com.