Northshore Town Hall Meeting Focuses on Chinese Drywall
07:02 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 15, 2009
MANDEVILLE, La. – Northshore homeowners with Chinese drywall problems will be able to sound off at a town hall meeting Wednesday.
State Senators Julie Quinn and A.G. Crowe will host the meeting at the Mandeville City Hall at 6:30 p.m.
"I need these consumers to let legislators know it is a real problem,” Quinn said Tuesday. "They need to tell every legislator they can get their hands on, and tell their story to."
Thousands of Louisiana homes built between 2004 and 2007 were built with defective Chinese drywall, including Kent Maykut's home near Madisonville.
"Right now, it's in litigation," Maykut said, "it's just a waiting game, there's nothing you can do."
Maykut lost his home in St. Bernard Parish in Katrina, and built a new home in the Ruelle du Chene subdivision near Madisonville. After hearing news reports about the bad sheetrock, he checked his attack, and discovered his home had it too.
"It'll make your stomach just drop, Maykut said, "we've been through a lot within the last four years."
He doesn't know what he can save in his home, and what is contaminated. That's one of the questions Quinn said will be addressed in the town hall Meeting, along with health hazards and consumer's legal rights.
Quinn said current laws do not protect consumers. She said the feds don't adequately monitor imports, and people in Louisiana can't sue suppliers or builders.
It's a problem that's left homeowners like Maykut living with defective sheetrock, because they can't afford the cost of gutting their home.
"I'm trying to educate the public and encourage them to shout to the Governor's Office, to the fellow legislators and even to the federal government," Quinn said. "Help us so we don't lose our home."