Monday's Internet Edition, October 06, 2008.
its share of money from Homeland Security
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Leader-Press correspondent -
GATESVILLE – Each community and every location in the seven-county Central Texas Council of Governments region is covered by at least one hazardous materials response team, according to a report presented Monday at the Coryell County Commissioners Court meeting.
“I do come bearing good news for Coryell County,” said Jim Reed, executive director of CTCOG, whose regional office is in Belton. Reed provided an outline of federal dollars spent in the county on homeland security issues, plus benefits the county receives over and above the expenditures.
And Copperas Cove is on the leading edge as the city within the next few days will begin to install it’s new 800-series radio communications systems in mobile units to augment the already existing base communications infrastructure, Copperas Cove Fire Chief Dennis Haas said.
Coryell County and the other six counties in CTCOG opted to apply for the Homeland Security money as a region, rather than county-by-county. Reed said the decision worked well in Coryell County’s favor. “Coryell County directly received $127,000 as part of the region. If you had applied for funding as a single county, your portion would have been $115,000. So by applying with the region you benefited by more than $12,000,” Reed said.
“There are three allocations from the Department of Homeland Security for regional COGS,” Reed said. “The total expenditure for CTCOG in the first round was $1.832 million. Of that Coryell County directly received $127,000 in cash and benefits equal to $230,021.”
Some of the benefits the county reaps from the expenditures are not direct dollars but benefits in kind from expenditures in other areas.
Reed said groups of representatives from each community and each entity in the seven-county region was contacted by CTCOG to identify what each areas needs might be. The region received extra funds from Homeland Security because it was one of only two COGS in Texas that had 100 percent participation in the survey.
“It took some extra work but we got responses from every entity in the region and that translated into extra funding for CTCOG,” Reed said.
The study group aimed first at six areas, including mutual aid amongst all emergency and government entities in the region, ease of interfaced communications for both voice and data between all entities, availability of hazardous materials teams and upgrades in personal protective gear for First Responders.
“We identified six areas that needed immediate attention,” Reed explained. First was HazMat (Hazardous Materials) Teams. We had teams in Temple, Killeen and Lampasas already, so all we had to do was change their mission from a city-response to an area response. They all have agreed to be respond to any location in the region. We now have the capability to send a HazMat team anywhere in CTCOG, or more than one, if we need to.”
Reed said Copperas Cove was in a region initially assigned to the Killeen HazMat team, but the Lampasas team could respond as well, if need be. Reed explained the Lampasas team is assigned to respond to issues in the western portion of the region, Killeen in the middle and Temple on the east.
Haas said the City of Copperas Cove has had a mutual aid agreement with the City of Killeen and Fort Hood for some time, but the agreement arranged within the COG region is beneficial to his department.
“We’ll respond to any call for assistance regardless of the availability of a HazMat unit, even if it’s just as a First Responder,” Haas said. He added if the local department could handle the emergency, they would do so, but would call in a regional HazMat team if necessary.
“We had to get over the thinking that Ft. Hood can come to our rescue. We fear that in the event of a national emergency, Ft. Hood would be occupied otherwise and we have to be able to take care of ourselves,” Reed said.
The total funding set aside to bolster the HazMat teams is about $607,000, Reed said, or roughly $200,000 each.
The second primary concern was communications, both voice and data. Reed said the region has employed a system, which should be operable within a few weeks, that allows any entity to address a radio system and the dispatcher can “patch” any two radio systems together to allow for direct communication.
“That will mean Killeen can talk to Copperas Cove or Ft Hood or the sheriff’s office without having to have a new radio system,” Reed said.
The problem now, he said, is some of those entities use radio systems which do not interface with others. The patch will alleviate the need to buy new systems while still providing the communications interface necessary.
One of the systems will be installed in the Coryell County Sheriff’s office in Gatesville, the other in the Copperas Cove Police Department.
The system is operated by a touch screen computer, Reed said. “When one entity contacts the radio tower, a box on the 15-inch screen will flash. The operator touches that key and then the one that corresponds to the other party and the two can talk as long as they want, until the operator disconnects them” Reed said.
Haas said the Copperas Cove effort is ahead of the curve when it comes to upgrading communications equipment.
“I think we’re leading the charge on the communications issue,” Haas said. “When our new 800-system is in place in our cars we’ll be able to talk to Bell County, Coryell County or Fort Hood. We’ve gotten along for years without good communications capabilities and now we’ll be able to talk to everybody.”
Haas said the new system, which was funded by a bond package passed in 2003 for $1.2 million, is mostly in place now and is operable. The department has been waiting on issuance of a license from the Federal Communications Commission, which was received last week, he said. Hand-held radios on the new frequency are being issued now and mobile radios will be installed in vehicles beginning in a few days, he said..
A second part of the communications effort involves county hospitals. Systems planed for installation will allow First Responders to communicate directly with emergency rooms.
Also included in the communications package is data retrieval. Reed said the data-interchangeable system will interface with appraisal districts and all that data will be combined with other data to provide a parcel map of the CTCOG area.
“This is useful to us in the case of a need for evacuation, but it will benefit your appraisal districts, too,” Reed said. The additional data will include such things as 9-1-1 addressing, water- and gas-line placement, underground utilities and the like.
In fact, he said, when the data system is fully operational, anyone may access appraisal district data on the internet. Records will remain secure because the data will be available as “read-only” data. “Besides, land title data is maintained in the County Clerk’s office,” County Clerk Barbara Simpson said.
Haas, who came to Copperas Cove as Fire Chief only four months ago, already has experience in utilizing the regional HazMat system and the newly installed radio gear. “I have some experience with county-wide response teams because we set up a similar regional system with four HazMat teams in Travis County before I came up here,” he said.
The next item addressed was training and personal protective gear, Reed said.
“We need to make sure every First Responder in the CTCOG region has what it needs to respond before we go out to buy luxury items,” Reed said. He said the CTCOG group currently is assessing the capabilities of area First Responders to see what kinds of personal protective gear each might need.
“We’re looking at bunker gear right now, and air packs and other breathing apparatus. We need to be sure our First Responders can get inside a burning building to rescue a victim.” He said an average HazMat suit can cost $1,500 to $2,000 and once used, the suit must be discarded.
In other business the court issued a utility construction easement to Central Texas Telephone.
Commissioner Jack Wall said he expects a report next week on the county’s effort to join with Fox Crossing Water Development Board. The meeting, which is open to the public, is set for 9 a.m. Monday in the basement courtroom of the Coryell County Courthouse in Gatesville.
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