State has received $60M in homeland security funding
JEFF GEARINO Southwest Wyoming bureau | Posted: Sunday, September 10, 2006 12:00 am
EVANSTON - The squat, silver robot on wheels rolled off the ramp and down the high school hall, its extendable claw pointing straight ahead and its futuristic body trailing red cable. Two cameras recorded all the action, and two "disrupters" stood ready to ward off assailants, with regular shot or water shot.
On this day, the bomb/hazardous materials search robot, as it's called, was looking for a homemade bomb with six sticks of stolen dynamite hidden somewhere in Evanston High School. A crazed terrorist with his finger on the trigger was holding the school superintendent and others hostage in the principal's office.
The mock hostage drama that played out in Uinta County last month not only tested the mettle and skills of a host of law enforcement agencies and other "first responders," but it also served as an example of how Wyoming is spending it homeland security dollars. Wyoming bought the robot with $150,000 of its share of the money.
About $60 million in federal homeland security money has flowed into Wyoming since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was formed in 2002 with the passage of the Patriot Act, a direct result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.
Wyoming's homeland security windfall has been a target of criticism from some quarters. Measures have been introduced unsuccessfully in Congress that seek to slash homeland security grant funding to less-populated states such as Wyoming and shift it to states with larger metropolitan areas, including New York and California.
Critics argue that terrorism grant money should go to areas such as New York City and the District of Columbia because they have a higher risk than Wyoming of being targeted again. They contend homeland security funding should be divvied up by risk.
U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., argued recently that while some areas of the country have more terrorism targets, Wyoming also has pipelines, airports, national parks and nuclear weapons that need to be protected. He also noted that places including New York and New Jersey have a good deal of unspent homeland security grant funding.
"We're talking about homeland security, so that's for the whole country," Thomas said. "There's a need everywhere, (and) it seems to me in fairness we ought to continue to do that."
Improved capabilities
Wyoming officials say the funding is used to protect the citizens of the state from natural and manmade disasters and terrorist acts.
Wyoming Office of Homeland Security officials say 80 percent of the money is going directly to the state's counties, and two Wind River Indian Reservation tribes, to enhance the capability of first responders - mostly through the purchase of equipment and the funding of training and exercises.
"We are spending our money wisely and as intended," said Larry Green, grant compliance manager for the state office.
"In Wyoming, counties have been doing an excellent job with these grants and the way they're spending their money and identifying their needs," Green said. "We are much better able as a state and as a county to respond to (a terrorist event) than we were before 9/11."
Green said most, if not all, of Wyoming's counties are using some of the funding to examine and improve their emergency management communication systems. They're also using the money to protect law enforcement personnel, firemen, ambulance personnel, EMTs and other first responders to disasters or terrorist acts.
"A lot of (counties) are really protecting those first responders out there on the road, whether it's protective equipment or the garments that they wear or their (hazard) detection capabilities," he said. "They've been really super about identifying what equipment they have to have on board to get out there and get the job done."
Analyzing risk
Kelly Ruiz, spokeswoman for the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security, said the $14 million the state received this year came from the federal Office for Domestic Preparedness, which provided a minimum allotment for each state and additions according to population.
Under the program, 80 percent of the funding must go to the local jurisdictions, and 20 percent is kept by the state. The dollars are distributed by Congress to the states on a per-capita basis. Wyoming receives $32 per capita under the program. By comparison, California receives $4.23 per capita.
Green said the funding formula changed a bit in 2006 and was largely based on a risk analysis and on seven specific project areas identified by the state. Those areas include improvised explosive devices and bombs, agriculture and livestock, health and medicines, and evacuation response.
"In 2003, we did a vulnerability assessment across the state and each of the counties identified (critical infrastructure risks) … under five categories, which include planning, organizations, exercising, training and equipment … how many first responders they have and what they needed for equipment," he said.
"The (per capita) figures are still there, but now it's coordinated with that risk analysis and those seven projects," Green said.
In the coming year, Wyoming expects to see a 39 percent reduction of federal homeland security funding, state director Joe Moore said last week.
Equipment, training
The grants from the Office of Domestic Preparedness have been used to fund a variety of equipment purchases and initiatives, according to the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security's 2005 report to the Legislature.
In addition to the bomb/hazardous materials search robot, state homeland security funds were used to buy and distribute about 2,300 first responders personal protective equipment kits around the state; to buy a mobile communications vehicle and a mobile security support vehicle; for critical incident management communications software; for the purchase of mass decontamination tents; and to buy chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, explosive prevention and response watercraft.
Homeland security money also funded the distribution of a variety of equipment - including two self-contained breathing apparatus, two spare air cylinders, two pair of binoculars, a four-gas monitor and six sets of protective clothing - to each of 145 fire stations across Wyoming.
Officials said grant money has also been used for a variety of training activities, a state homeland security conference, numerous state exercise programs, and a host of planning activities for state and county hazard mitigation plans.
Wyoming counties have been spending their homeland security allotments in many ways.
For example, homeland security money in Natrona County helped fund a radio system that is now shared by most local law enforcement agencies and emergency responders in the county.
The Natrona County Sheriff's Office also used the money to buy a new boat based at Alcova Reservoir, and the funds helped to build a new mobile morgue for the county coroner's office.
In Uinta County in southwest Wyoming, federal homeland security funds were used to purchase a new, 36-foot-long mobile command post, two trailers, an inflatable first-response tent that can also be used as a decontamination unit, six third-generation night vision goggles, and new portable radios for the sheriff's department.
In Gillette, homeland security money was used to buy one of the bomb/hazardous materials search robots, Green said.
Southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at 307-875-5359 or at gearino@tribcsp.com.