Saturday, Nov. 2

 

Groundbreaking marks start of
$9.8 million sewer plant upgrade

[NOV. 2, 2002]  About 50 people braved a cold November wind to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the $9.8 million upgrade to Lincoln’s wastewater treatment plant on Friday afternoon.

Attending were present and former aldermen Benny Huskins, Dave Armbrust, Bill Melton, Verl Prather and Jim Levi; Mayor Beth Davis; city treasurer Les Plotner; city attorney Bill Bates; officials from Environmental Management Company, a BOC Group company, which operates the plant; officials from PARIC, the construction manager for the project; and members of Donahue and Associates, design engineers.

 


[Photo by Jan Youngquist]
[Left to right, Jim Levi, former Lincoln alderman who served as chairman of the sewer committee; Bill Melton, present alderman who now chairs the committee; and Mike McKee, vice president in charge of operations of Environmental Management Company, which manages the city's sewer plant, were at the groundbreaking ceremony for the $9.8 plant upgrade.]

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“This is the biggest project the city has ever taken on,” Bill Melton, who chairs the sewer committee, told the audience.  The upgrade will increase the sewer plant’s capacity from 3.35 million gallons to 5.1 million gallons per day and is needed if the plant is to meet new and stricter Environmental Protection Agency requirements.

“There were some bumps along the way,” Melton said of the ongoing effort.  Some of the “bumps” included meeting all requirements for a low-interest EPA loan and getting on the waiting list for the money, as well as assisting contractors to meet EPA requirements in the bidding process.

Melton thanked a number of people for helping the city get over the bumps.  These included Joe Miller of EMC and Joe Pisula of Donohue and Associates for their many trips to Lincoln to keep the council and mayor informed about plans for the upgrade and Bates for his many meetings with the EPA and others to make sure requirements were being met.

Sewer plant manager Grant Eaton said work on enlarging the facility, which was built in 1936-37, will begin immediately.  He anticipates it will take about 18 months to complete the work.

[Joan Crabb]


Escapee back behind bars

[NOV. 2, 2002]  Logan County Sheriff Anthony Soloman announced that Kevin Johnson, the suspect who was wanted by Logan County for escape charges, has been arrested by the U.S. Marshall’s Office Violent Fugitive Task Force.

Johnson had numerous criminal charges in Sangamon and Logan Counties. He was transferred to Logan County on Sunday, Sept. 15, for a court appearance on the Monday, Sept. 16. When he was returned to the jail following his court appearance, the paperwork for all his other misdeeds had not yet arrived. He used papers he received from a judge showing time served for a traffic violation to walk out. 

A warrant was issued for his arrest. Soloman contacted the U.S. Marshall’s Office shortly after the warrant was issued.

Johnson was located at the Pacific Gardens Mission, a shelter for homeless people, at State and Balbo streets in Chicago. The arrest was made Friday, Nov. 1, at 3 p.m.

Soloman was extremely pleased with the cooperation and effort that the U.S. Marshall’s Office extended in this case.

[Press release/Jan Youngquist]


The right man for the job (rerun due to late posting on Friday)

[NOV. 1, 2002]  There sits a tall, slightly graying man with an intense look in his eyes. His office is a complete composition in perfect order except for a few stacked boxes filled with binders and papers.


[Photos by Jan Youngquist]
[Patrick Keane]

A closer inspection of the room clearly reveals eclectic tastes. American Indian relics adorn a section of wall and shelves. He says he has some great Indian music as well as several other options, while chamber music is playing at the moment. The neatly organized books reveal much of the same diversity — disaster stories grouped between bio-terrorism and completely unrelated selections in fiction and nonfiction.

The long wall beside his desk is covered with over two decades of personal pictures. Most are action pictures. A picture of him in a rain slicker on a mountain bike. A picture of him walking briskly with dignitaries and TV reporters with large microphones, everyone sporting serious looks. And so the "me wall" goes until the far corner, where it ends with a framed picture of his last and favorite car, a hot red, sporty Subaru. The long-desired vehicle is now impractical with his age-related hip pain.

 

A cubicle displays other types of pictures. One wall is disasters: explosion fireballs and massive train wreckage. Another wall is lined with certificates and awards.

The tabletop holds a collection of miniature rescue vehicles and aircraft. The man quickly quips, "He who has the most toys at the end, wins!" The toys, he says, were given to him by friends. These would be friends he has made through his work. The toys represent 22 years of disaster training and response assistance.

 

Who is this man? He is Patrick Keane, Illinois Emergency Management Agency, Region Seven coordinator.

As a young man coming from a strong family background of governmental careers, Keane fully expected to work in government. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Loyola University, Chicago, he entered the U.S. Army and served from 1976 to 1977 in both active duty and active reserve.

He trained as special weapons team leader; nuclear weapons employment officer; nuclear, biological and chemical officer; and linguist/liaison officer in Greece. He was also assistant group operations officer, military intelligence company commander, electronic warfare intelligence officer and deputy operations officer for a Military Intelligence Battalion.

As a field artillery air observer for the 75th Field Artillery Group, he provided aviation support for search and rescue — SAR. It was there that he developed some of the skills that he would hone and would later become his passion. He accumulated knowledge and experience in SAR, which would eventually lead to state awards and changes in SAR thinking at national and international levels.

 

Keane returned to civilian life following 13 months in Greece. From 1977 to 1980 he went to work for Tinley Park as director/manager of services. His first charge was emergency services. In addition, he saw to financial and personnel functions.

The snowstorm of ’79 that closed down the Chicago area served as a pivotal point in his career. Tinley Park was the only area with full access for emergency services for four days. Their roads to hospitals and other services were open.

Following the disaster, Illinois Emergency Services Director Marion Jones came to Keane and said, "I like what you did. You thought outside the box." Jones grabbed Keane and pulled him into the state agency.

"I just fell into this," claims Keane. But if you look at his background, training, athleticism and his love of the outdoors, the job fit him perfectly, or he fit the job.

Though he serves all of Illinois as needed, as regional coordinator Keane specifically assists 14 counties in central Illinois in planning, training and attaining funding for equipment in preparation for emergencies. He has traveled all over the state assisting with every major disaster. His job entails a combination of routine paper work, planned site training, planning and development guidance to local agencies, and snap decisions at a disaster.

 

While Keane says his job hasn’t changed in the 22 years he’s been doing it, the focus of the agency has changed with the times. When he started in ’75, it was the Illinois Emergency and Disaster Agency. The emphasis was on disaster response. The emergency services focus has shifted from civil defense to natural disasters, from natural disasters to hazmat (hazardous materials), and currently to terrorism preparedness.

 

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Keane’s office is located in that tall, round building in downtown Champaign. It is simple to find because of its distinctiveness. Like the uniqueness of that building, Keane doesn’t take the approach, "That’s the way we’ll do it because that’s the way it’s always been done." It’s his ability to recognize impractical standards and apply common sense to a project or situation that has transformed emergency services planning. In particular he has impacted search and rescue, nuclear power plant disaster and pharmaceutical stockpiling preparedness.

 

When Keane began his job, Illinois did not have a search and rescue training program. He has since developed and teaches the search and rescue system that is used by foot patrols, mountain bike and horse-mounted patrols and aircraft in Illinois. His weekends are spent on the field training groups all over Illinois and the Midwest. He uses a technique that he learned from a couple of English fellows that requires less manpower and has a better success rate. A footed patrol would take 150 people walking in a line side by side and has only a 20 percent detection rate. Using a technique called "Critical Separation," a crew of five will have a 70 percent detection rate.

Keane has also brought his common sense to mapping projects. He was asked to lead in the development of an emergency response plan for the Clinton Nuclear Power Plant. At that time, maps used concentric distances from the site and divided those distances into 20 degree segments. No one knew why they used this unnatural method, but it was the standard. He proposed using established geopolitical boundaries with practical names that people already know and understand. In an emergency everyone would quickly know who was affected. Clinton was the first nonstandard mapping plan, and five out of seven other nuclear power plants have since followed suit.

Keane worked with Logan County developing a hazardous materials plan. Industries with quantities of hazardous materials are now marked with color- and number-coded placards to indicate the types of chemicals present. The hazmat plan took three years of weekly and monthly development. Jamie Pfeifer and Larry Adams wrote the material. Dan Fulscher reviewed it and sent it on to Keane. When it was done it won Logan County ESDA Director Dan Fulscher a state award.

Keane then worked with Macon and Champaign counties on their hazmat plans. They built on the plan Logan County had developed, and the next year those counties each won state awards.

Chemical stockpile preparedness is a relatively new concept that has taken on much greater value since 9/11. Illinois has been a leader on this. Keane began work on this 10 years ago and wrote the current Illinois plan.

Thirteen members of Logan County ESDA and LEPC attended Disaster Intelligence Training taught by Keane in Decatur on Sept. 14. On Sept. 25 he came here for pre-disaster planning. Sept. 29 he administered a mock disaster held in the Blue Room. He supervised and critiqued the simulated tabletop disaster conducted by community leaders and first responders from all over Logan County.

In October he came here again to train mounted search and rescue workers. Many of those at the training session have been training under him for years. Gillette Ransom, who was in attendance, praised Keane for his SAR training. "He’s just great," she said.

His influence in Logan County has been extensive. Fulscher says of Keane, "He is one of the most intelligent men I’ve been around, if not the most. He’s professional and dignified." Yet, he adds, "Those of us that really know him, know the soft side — the friend, the painful agony of helping people in need and being just a common folk not only makes him vulnerable but even more likable because it shows he’s human."

Today, for the first time in 22 years, the orderly, complete room in Champaign will sit empty. The state’s budget crisis has robbed the citizens of Illinois of Keane and 21 out of 71 other agency leaders. Early retirement incentive packages have removed much of the think tank in emergency management and other leading state agencies.

 


[Sheila Curry]

Sheila Curry, Region Seven office coordinator, who has sat on the other side of the wall listening to Keane’s diverse musical selections for 25 years, retires Dec. 31.

Fulscher said, "We will miss Patrick Keane in Logan County because he was dedicated. He knew how to push us to be better and help us to be stronger and more prepared. He leaves us with his legacy that will continue for many years."

The Illinois search and rescue program, which Keane developed, has become one of three top models in the nation. During his career he has trained 2,400 people in SAR, and 13 lives have been saved. As emphasis is placed on new programs, older programs will be cut. He is concerned that the SAR will probably be on the state budget chopping block.

Keane says it’s difficult to "preside over birth and leave at its death." He hopes that local governments will pick up and continue the programs that are needed, such as the search and rescue. If state cuts that funding, he will still be available for costs. He still has some SAR training sessions to attend that were already scheduled.

However, Keane now intends to get reacquainted with his wife of 28 years, Deborah. They plan to travel around the United States a bit and enjoy life. Maybe they’ll visit their 25-year-old son, Ian, who is in the Coast Guard.

He thinks that if he gets desperate he might be able to get a job in a bookstore.

[Jan Youngquist]


Governor releases $38 million for
water pollution control programs

[NOV. 2, 2002]  SPRINGFIELD — Gov. George Ryan released $38 million in state funds Oct. 29 to continue a joint state and federal program that helps Illinois communities clean up, reduce and control pollution in local water supplies.

The state allocation allows the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to capture $190 million in federal funds to be used on clean water programs and anti-pollution projects throughout Illinois.

“My administration has placed a priority on cleaning and protecting the environment — our land, our air and our water,” Ryan said. “These funds are a clear signal that we value our environment and will be vigilant in protecting it for future generations.”

The governor’s Illinois FIRST program assured the EPA had all of the funds necessary to capture all federal money available to Illinois. Prior to 1999, Illinois was able to capture only a portion of the federal funds available in the program to control pollution and protect drinking water.

Since 1999, the state has earmarked a total of $87 million from the sale of bonds as the state’s share of the Water Pollution Control Revolving Loan Program. The governor released the fiscal 2003 allocation of $19 million, which enables the EPA to capture $95 million in federal funds.

 

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The governor also released an appropriation of $19 million that was carried over from fiscal 2002 because local projects needing the money were not ready to begin.

Each $19 million allocation actually funds two programs — $12 million for the Water Pollution Control Program, which targets wastewater and sewage treatment facilities, and $7 million for the Public Water Supply Loan Program, which targets drinking water supplies.

The two programs help local governments undertake expensive water pollution control and mitigation projects. Since 1989, more than 380 loans totaling $1.4 billion have been made to local governments to control water pollution. The drinking water program, which began in 1997, has resulted in 132 loans totaling $209 million for local communities.

[Illinois Government News Network
press release]

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