By Jake Thompson
Omaha World - Herald
Copyright 2007 Omaha World - Herald
WASHINGTON — In an odd sort of way, Nebraska can thank Osama bin Laden for solving a long-standing problem.
Thanks to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the state is swiftly stocking up on hundreds of hand-held radios, car-mounted mobile radios and pagers, while building new towers and replacing old dispatcher consoles.
Within about two years, the gear will link police, fire, EMTs and others statewide in case of a terrorist attack, but also during natural disasters such as grass fires, floods, blizzards, tornadoes or ice storms. Iowa is building a similar network.
Officials in Iowa and Nebraska say they are spending money on their biggest need: a unified communications system that links all emergency officials statewide via radios, rather than routing messages clumsily through dispatching centers.
Critics have questioned the flow of homeland security dollars to rural states, but the new equipment provides an important new tool in any crisis, emergency officials say.
“Communications in Nebraska is not gee-whiz. What we’ve done is not flashy, but it works,” said Al Berndt, assistant director of the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency.
Nebraska might never have built the kind of system it’s developing if not for the 9/11 attacks by bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist group. As early as 1992, a study of 16 state agencies found gaps in radio coverage, old equipment and incompatible communications systems.
Little happened.
Then, 9/11 opened the floodgates on federal spending for equipment many states had wanted for years.
Now Nebraska is moving to electronically connect state and local agencies “much faster and more cohesively” than it would have without the grants, Berndt said.
In recent years, homeland security grants have sparked controversy because of some dubious spending, little federal oversight and a debate between rural-state lawmakers who say they need to be ready because terrorists can strike anywhere and big-city mayors who contend they deserve more of the money because they face a much higher risk of attack.
Grants peaked in 2003 in Nebraska and 2004 in Iowa. Last month, Nebraska learned it will receive about $15 million this year, while Iowa will receive $17.4 million. Decisions on how to spend the money are made locally, subject to approval by NEMA.
A review of Nebraska’s homeland security grant spending shows a big shift in the last three years.
Instead of chiefly buying gas masks, bomb trucks and emergency medical equipment, counties now go for communications devices. Spending on such equipment shifted from 28 percent in 2003 to more than 70 percent in 2006.
The money is building eight regional networks that will be linked statewide, bridging police, fire and emergency crews with the State Patrol and other state agencies.
Keith County, for example, received a total of $986,000 in 2005 and 2006 for communications equipment linking a 10-county western Nebraska region.
Before that, some firetrucks didn’t have radios, and law officers in one sheriff’s office couldn’t talk to those from a neighboring county unless they went through central dispatchers.
Soon, with the flip of a switch on a new radio, a firefighter or law officer will be able to communicate throughout the region, said Pete Peterson, Keith County emergency manager and 911 center director in Ogallala.
Rural and remote, Cherry County received a total of almost $674,000 in 2005 and 2006 for radios, towers and training and to rip out a 30-year-old dispatch console to make room for a new high-tech one.
“We were going to have to do something with our communications system, and we were to the point we didn’t know what to do,” said Eilene Brannon, the county’s emergency manager. “The homeland security money, as far as I’m concerned, has been a huge asset.”
But Matt Mayer, a former head of the Homeland Security Department’s grants office, said the state grants have become another form of entitlement spending.
Too much is handed out, he said, with few strings attached. Too little attention is paid to protecting America’s most vulnerable assets, such as nuclear power plants, airports, rail systems, bridges, ports and commercial centers.
“We’ve been allocating funds just based on lots of nebulous ideas,” Mayer said. “I’m sure we are better prepared. We just don’t know if we’re a little bit better or a lot.”
Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff seemed to address that issue when he announced $1.7 billion in homeland security grants and warned that states shouldn’t expect the largesse to continue forever.
In May, the U.S. House tucked a provision into a homeland security bill now before the U.S. Senate. It would require states and local governments to file quarterly reports detailing how they spent the grants.
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a critic of pork barrel spending, co-wrote the proposal after highlighting examples of what he called wasteful grant spending, such as 70 surveillance cameras for a tiny Alaska town of 2,400 and bulletproof vests for police dogs and fire dogs.
An official in the Homeland Security Inspector General’s Office said Congress has put it in charge of reviewing each state’s homeland security grant spending over the next seven years.
Among some big-ticket items purchased recently in Nebraska, the three-county area around Omaha ordered a $43,000 global defender trailer, which has equipment to cover potential explosives with foam, and a $337,000 global positioning system.
Since 9/11, Nebraska has been slower than many states in spending its homeland security grants.
Nebraska, recipient of $137.4 million in homeland security-related spending since 2002, had 29 percent unspent, 17th from the top in unspent money. Iowa, recipient of $184.6 million, has 16 percent of its money unspent. . The totals include money states receive from other grant programs.
Nebraska has lagged, Berndt said, in part because a statewide communications plan is still being worked on and there are complicated rules from the Homeland Security Department. Also, it takes time to get all the new gear programmed and in the field.
Peterson, the Keith County official, acknowledged that not all of the roughly 150 portable radios, 150 pagers and dozens of mobile radios the county has purchased are in use in his 10-county region.
“I have mobiles and portables and pagers in boxes,” he said. “I’ve just not had time to get those out and about. That’s going to be happening this fall. It does take time.”
In recent years, Keith County received more money than he expected, he said, adding: “Don’t get me wrong. I’m very thankful for it.”