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Purse strings tighter on Homeland Security
The rules and requirements are baffling and intimidating ... the acronyms, completely confusing. But surprisingly, the application form is fairly simple.
Emergency response personnel from Southwest Nebraska learned recently that federal "Homeland Security" grant money won't be distributed as easily as it has been in the past.
At a meeting in McCook Feb. 19, two representatives of the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency -- NEMA -- walked the group through the seemingly-overwhelming competitive application process.
"It's really not as hard as it sounds," promised Jim Bunstock of Lincoln, a federal aid administrator for NEMA. Bunstock is a 1967 graduate of McCook Senior High and the son of Dick Bunstock of Cedar Bluffs.
Local first responders learned that the process -- boiled down to its barest bones -- can be quite simple: Describe how the money will be used to prevent, prepare for, react to or recover from a terrorist attack, and the application stands a good chance of being successful.
Nebraska emergency officials have written a "Nebraska Strategy for Homeland Security," which states: "Domestic terrorism threats in the United States and in Nebraska are now an unfortunate reality."
" ... the threat of terrorism is always a possibility."
The Nebraska strategy was designed to focus on needs and issues specific to Nebraska, while incorporating national efforts to identify terrorists, refine capabilities for reacting to weapons of mass destruction and improve response capabilities.
The federal Office of Domestic Preparedness/ Homeland Security -- ODP HLS -- is providing money to each state and territory in 2004, and state officials will then determine which local emergency response projects to fund.
Nebraska has been allocated $24,376,000 for grant awards. Preliminary requests indicate emergency responders want $4.3 billion worth of equipment.
"That's billion -- with a 'B.' You can't get everything you want, unfortunately," Dan Hiller of Lincoln, NEMA's planning specialist, told the 40-or-so law officers, firefighters, hospital representatives, paramedics, hazardous materials experts and EMTs gathered for the meeting.
Bunstock said, "We'll tell you how to get the money, what there is of it."
Grant requests can be funneled through three programs:
* the State Homeland Security Program (SHSP)
* the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program (LETPP), and
* the Citizen Corps Program (CCP).
Each program emphasizes training, exercises and evaluation.
Bunstock said the description of the project is very important: "This is what you will do and how you will do it, and how you will measure progress and success."
Bunstock used as an example: "XX County has the common problem in communications in that we cannot all talk to each other. We plan to erect another tower in the northern part of the county which will give complete communications coverage."
The project description also explained an upgrade of the jurisdiction's communications system to further enhance capabilities.
An important part of this example project, Bunstock said, is the inclusion of funds to plan, conduct and evaluate a table top exercise for response to a terroristic bombing.
"The better job you do of selling your project," Bunstock said, "the better chance it will have of being funded." He emphasized, "Remember -- you're competing against everyone else."
"Make your best case," Bunstock said, "and make it fit the state plan."
If two counties will cooperate on one project, Bunstock recommended that each county submit its share of the project, and note that the counties are cooperating. "Logically speaking," he said, "the project will be considered as a package."
Bunstock said agencies are not limited to one project each, but each project needs its own application.
Bunstock stressed the importance of correct math. "This is a mathematical process," he said. "It must add up."
"You''ll be working in a 60-day window," he emphasized. "Make sure the math works all the way through."
A project will be accepted and receive full funding -- or it will be rejected and receive no funding, Bunstock said. There will be no partial funding, he said.
Once ODP HLS approves the "Nebraska Strategy for Homeland Security" this spring, local agencies will have 60 days to submit their grant applications and two years to complete and evaluate their projects.