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May 5, 2011
From staff reports news@joplinglobe.com The Joplin Globe Thu May 05, 2011, 11:14 PM CDT
PITTSBURG, Kan. — On Thursday, Scott Crain, fire chief in Pittsburg, Kan., climbed in the basket of the city’s new 100-foot aerial fire engine.
“I’m standing on the truck right now, in Appleton, Wis., at Pierce Manufacturing, and am doing the final inspection,” Crain said via cellphone. “We’ll test it out Friday, and it’s due to be delivered to us next week.”
That truck, which replaces a 30-year-old, 85-foot platform aerial, can reach the eighth floor of the historic Besse Hotel in Pittsburg, which has been renovated into apartments.
Crain said the city wouldn’t have been able to afford such a truck on its own, since the bid came in at $765,931. But, the FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grants — a program of the Department of Homeland Security — picked up $712,500, with the city paying the remainder.
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That is 97% of a new fire engine for a podunk little town in KS. Pittsburg paid for with.. tax dollars..
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That’s how it has been in the past decade, with the federal government through its new department underwriting much of the cost for equipment in cities, large and small, across the nation. In fact, the Department of Home Security, created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, is now the third-largest Cabinet department of the federal government. It has awarded about $31 billion in grants to state and local governments.
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31 billion in grants (funded by tax payer money) to state and local governments?
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The Girard (Kan.) Fire Department received $94,000 that helped it purchase a 3,000-gallon tanker trunk. Bill Dunn, fire chief in Carl Junction, said "homeland security grants paid for air packs and portable radios". Several Southwest Missouri cities and counties, including the Newton County Sheriff’s Department, secured federal grants to buy "computers for vehicles".
“We didn’t have any (computers in our vehicles), so it certainly helped us,” said Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland.
In Webb City, Don Melton, assistant police chief, said "homeland security grants provided $197,000 to outfit patrol cars with laptop computers and $150,000 to upgrade the radio system".
Carl Junction police Chief Delmar Haase used an $8,000 grant for thermal imaging equipment.
Why here?
It may seem odd for small communities that aren’t on terrorist radar to receive homeland security grants — Golden City has received $199,000 and Redings Mill ( population 159! That's 371.00 for every person living there!) $59,000 since 9/11.
And there have been critics of the practice.
A paper, published in 2004-2005 by Veronique de Rugby with the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, questioned how the homeland security money was being spent. She couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday, but her report concluded that too much of the money was going to less-populous rural areas, where terrorist attacks are unlikely, and diverted from highly populated urban areas, where terrorist attacks are more likely.
“A large portion of homeland security spending decisions are made on a political basis rather than on a sound cost-benefit analysis, leading to the traditional public choice failures that plague government spending more generally,” she wrote. “As a result, homeland security funding is likely to be misallocated.”
But there are reasons for it, according local recipients.
“If terrorists would hit Kansas City, a big city, and all the equipment has been put in that big city, then where are responders going to get it when they need it? They contact us, and we’ll be there with ours,” said Eldon Bedene, emergency manager in Crawford County, Kan.
“When we got money, we used it for a 35-foot Winnebago that’s a full-blown communications vehicle, as well as a portable, 100-foot communications tower and four portable generators in case dispatch centers are lost or emergency shelters are needed.”
Joplin’s role
Joplin has been the designated city in Southwest Missouri from Nevada south to the state line and from Kansas east to Greene County to be equipped for a security or disaster response.
Leslie Jones, Joplin’s finance director, said Joplin received $3.1 million between 2002 and 2010.
Most of it has gone to buy equipment for area police and fire departments, for the Joplin Regional Airport, and for health department equipment and programs that deal with emergencies throughout a 20-county area.
Mitch Randles, Joplin’s fire chief, said Joplin is teamed with Springfield and Branson/western Taney County to respond to any major or widespread incident of terrorism or a natural disaster in those counties.
The money Joplin has received also has been used to buy equipment for responding to an incident involving hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction, such as gases, nerve agents or explosives.
The city also has bought an array of heavy equipment that could be used to conduct searches and rescues after building and trench collapses, “any time someone would be trapped under heavy items (and we) couldn’t get to them using normal tools,” Randles said.
Mass-casualty treatment equipment "to care for a large number of people who are injured or contaminated" also has been bought, along with "a decontamination unit that can be used for several hundred people, Randles said".
He said some of the equipment has been used in emergencies such as the 2003 tornado that destroyed a number of houses and buildings in Carl Junction.
He said some of the smaller cities, such as Neosho and Nevada, field advance teams that go out first on a call to scout out a situation, and tell Joplin what type of response needs to be made and what equipment needs to be provided.
Cherokee County
The bulk of homeland security money in Cherokee County, Kan., has gone to "improved communication equipment" for emergency workers, said county emergency management director Jason Allison and Sheriff David Groves. That includes "a $70,000 radio tower at the Sheriff’s Department and a $160,000 countywide paging system for first responders".
"In 2006, the county received a $140,000 homeland security grant to provide 10 repeaters and 150 portable and mobile radios for all police and emergency agencies in the county". Then last year, the county received $90,000 "to purchase 20 other radios for communicating with emergency workers statewide".
Allison and Groves said that regardless of the terrorist threat, "the radio equipment can be used for all types of emergencies".
Groves said he thinks the most likely terrorist threat in Cherokee County is that of agroterrorism, targeting the nation’s food supply.
STAFF WRITERS Andra Bryan Stefanoni, Roger McKinney, Debby Woodin and Emily Younker contributed to this report.
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Is this really how you want your tax dollars spent? On a town with a population of 159?! What say you Iowa? New York? California? New Mexico?
And why is it so important to upgrade communications systems in small midwest communities with tax payer dollars?
Why all this focus on emergency management?
I'm not sure, yet, what I think about HAARP and the rumors swirling about the New Madrid fault line..
But articles like this make me wonder.. Is this not socialism? The Federal government buying equipment and even paying the salaries of new hires in tiny communities?
Just file under things that make you go.. hmmmmm
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Greg
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