Still Waters
  By the NumbersHow We Stack UpWhat’s Up With That?


Commentaries posted do not necessarily represent the opinion of LDN.  Any opinions expressed are those of the writers.


Bring homeland security home to Illinois

By Stephen Meade

[SEPT. 11, 2002]  Organizers picked a bad week for last year’s meeting in Montana of state emergency management directors and key staff from around the country. Their choice: the week of Sept. 11, 2001.

For Ed Jacoby, director of the New York State Emergency Management Office, it meant a quick trip home on an F-16 combat jet. The other directors were pretty much stranded in Montana, cell phone batteries fading, wondering whether their states too might suffer a terrorist attack as they sat in what must have seemed America’s remotest location.

The war on terrorism places key elements of the nation’s defense in the hands of people like Jacoby. His counterparts in Illinois include people like Matt Bettenhausen, state homeland security director; Mike Chamness, director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency; and Cortez Trotter, Mayor Daley’s point man for disaster response. If an attack occurs and local police, fire and emergency medical personnel rush to the scene, it is city and state emergency managers who marshal backup support from such sources as neighboring fire departments, state police, the National Guard and state public health authorities.

Almost by definition, disaster scenes turn chaotic, not only from the direct cause of the damage — be it terrorist or tornado — but in the aftermath, with the sudden flood of emergency response personnel, volunteers and donations from surrounding areas. State and local emergency managers bring order to that chaos.

It was awkward, to say the least, to have senior leadership of America’s homeland defense meeting in Montana when America was attacked. But that situation illustrates some important points about the new kind of war Americans have been forced to wage.

Not since the Civil War have states assumed significant responsibility for defending America on our own soil. Back then, defense was organized around state militias. Today, states have largely ceded that defense authority to federal military and intelligence agencies, lavishly funded to develop the newest technologies and recruit the best and brightest talent. Until a year ago, domestic security was equated almost entirely with fighting crime and preparing for floods, earthquakes and the like.

Illinois is an interesting exception because Gov. George Ryan showed unusual prescience. Sixteen months before Sept. 11, Ryan created the Illinois Terrorism Task Force. Terrorist disaster planning and exercises were already under way. Likewise, Mayor Daley long ago invested substantially in a new emergency communications center, routinely visited by foreign dignitaries looking for the state of the art in emergency response.

But in Illinois and other states nationwide, state emergency preparedness has always been a low budget priority, and things have barely improved since Sept. 11. The economic slowdown had an especially damaging effect on state budgets.

 

[to top of second column in this commentary]

Fully nine months after Sept. 11, South Carolina’s newly appointed domestic security director, a retired Army general, told the New York Times that state homeland security authorities "are committed but they are broke."

"All of us homeland security advisers talk to each other, and all of us are strapped," he said.

Technology has given America’s armed forces overwhelming advantages over enemies overseas. Think of night-vision goggles, laser-guided bombs and pilotless aircraft. Here in our backyard, however, technologies that many of us in the private sector take for granted are wistfully only dreamed of by emergency management professionals.

Last spring, Illinois safety officials asked the National Emergency Management Association to survey the 50 state emergency management agencies to gauge their use of the Internet as a communications and management tool. A major role of emergency managers is coordination and communication with other agencies and levels of government. They must also tell the public what to do in an emergency and help coordinate volunteers and donations. The Internet seems a logical — indeed invaluable — tool for that kind of information management.

The survey’s findings? Though they generally can e-mail one another individually, there was little or no actual online capability to manage emergency response assets such as fire hose, syringes, blood donors, bottled water, emergency medical personnel, volunteers, donated goods or antibiotics.

That is only one application of defense technology that is underutilized. State and local emergency management agencies — too often noticed only after a disaster — have long suffered from benign neglect.

Congress this month wrestles with the intricacies of how a new federal Department of Homeland Security will be structured. Limitless congressional attention is focused on the new department’s hiring policies and whether agencies such as the Coast Guard belong under its wing.

Those issues are important. But if a disaster strikes Springfield, it will be Springfield firefighters, police, medical technicians and emergency managers who will be the heroes of our own homeland’s security. Let’s give them the tools so they can do their jobs.

[Stephen Meade]

Stephen Meade is chief executive officer of 2Xchange, a Chicago company whose products include software for state and local emergency response. His e-mail address is Stephen_Meade@2xchange.com.

 


By the Numbers


How We Stack Up


What’s Up With That?

WHO'S YOUR DADDY?!

By Jan Youngquist

[OCT. 12, 2002]  Check out this week’s headlines from the state website.  Hint, you don’t have to look too close to see a problem if you recall that Gov. Ryan’s hometown is Kankakee. 

Not only that, but few minds would be so feeble as to not remember that it was less than two months ago that the governor successfully closed down our oldest and largest employer, Lincoln Development Center, all the while claiming it was for the health and safety of the residents. Over 700 people lost their jobs. Spike that with statements he made a month later that it was closed for financial reasons.

 Also note the successive dates of the press releases, only one day apart.

 Now, read the following and see if you see what I see:

Ø      Oct. 8, 2002

Governor Ryan Announces Record Number of Drinking Water and Wastewater Treatment Loans for 31 Projects in September

SPRINGFIELD Governor George H. Ryan today announced a single-month record of 31 low-interest loans involving more than $65 million for upgrading local drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities across Illinois in September.

Lincoln (Logan County) $9,004,624

Ø      Oct. 9, 2002

Kankakee Infrastructure to Receive Boost from Illinois FIRST:  $3.5 Million set aside for 5TH Avenue Bridge Rehab and City Sewer System Upgrades

KANKAKEE — Governor George H. Ryan today joined Kankakee officials in announcing that $3.5 million from Illinois FIRST have been set aside for two infrastructure improvements in the city. The City of Kankakee will receive $500,000 to fund the rehabilitation of the 5th Avenue Bridge and $3 million dollars for upgrading the city’s sewer system.

Ø      Oct. 9, 2002

Governor Ryan Slates $12.5 Million for Kankakee Recreation and Fitness Facilities
Governor Ryan Breaks Ground on Aquatic Center, Announces Funding for New Ice Rink and Fitness Facility

KANKAKEE — Governor George H. Ryan today joined local officials from the Kankakee community to break ground on a new aquatic center and also announced funding for an ice rink and fitness center. $12.5 million in Illinois FIRST funds will be used to finance the projects, $5.9 million for the aquatic center and $6.6 million for the new ice rink.

[to top of second column in this commentary]

Uhmmm, correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like our state governor handed Lincoln and 30 other communities loan payment books. While one day later he lavished $16 million in grant funds on his own hometown.

If your blood isn’t boiling, you need to get off that iceberg.

Let’s analyze this a little bit.  A combined 31 communities scattered throughout the state share $65 million in loans. That’s an average of only $2 million per community. To boot, every one of these loans is for a necessary upgrade to essential services, such as drinking water or wastewater treatment facility upgrade.

Lincoln typifies the other communities receiving these loans in that it is not for an optional construction project.  Our sewer plant has been operating at maximum capacity for quite some time now. It also needs to be brought up to the IEPA’s newest quality standards.

To remain a viable community we need to be able to invite new industry and businesses and build additional housing. However, we can not add any new lines to our sewer system. We must upgrade. We will be getting a loan for  $9 million.

In his own back yard, the governor poured a sweet $16 million in Illinois FIRST grant funds. The first $12.5 million is for recreational facilities in the form of an aquatic center and ice rink. 

Add to the above, $3.5 million for bridge work and a wastewater treatment upgrade, necessary improvements just like for Lincoln and other communities, only not exactly: No payment book is attached.

How does such flagrant inequality occur in front of our very eyes?  Illinois FIRST funds garnered by raising license plate fees $30, for an increase from $48 to $78, allow George Ryan to play a rich sugar daddy.  It seems he lavishly showers those whom he desires with gifts. 

So, are the rest of us poor orphan stepchildren supposed to gratefully accept loans for needed and mandated projects while his hometown, friends and cronies dine on roasted pork?

Let me know what you think.  E-mail me at ldneditor@lincolndailynews.

[Jan Youngquist]



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