Although Congress recently agreed to create a federal Department of Homeland Security, if and when a new terrorist attack occurs, it’s likely to be a local government agency first on the scene to respond.

Now, more than a year after the nightmarish Sept. 11 attacks, Texas counties are starting to build similar defenses against terrorists. In suburban Collin County north of Dallas, the commissioners’ court recently voted to show their commitment to community safety by appointing their own homeland security director.

Collin County Judge Ron Harris said Kelly Stone was named to the position in October to help streamline the county’s emergency operations and lessen confusion among departments.

“The court felt there’s so many different aspects of homeland security – buildings, the medical side with bioterrorism, fire departments and whatnot – we needed someone as a separate entity reporting to the court to help coordinate that.”

Stone, formerly a major in the Collin County Sheriff’s Office, leads a small staff that includes an epidemiologist, the building and fire marshals and an administrative assistant. His primary duties, Harris said, involve working with the county’s municipalities and state government officials on emergency preparedness plans that can be put into action in case of a terrorist attack.

Harris said that Stone’s position has become more important than ever, since various departments need to be aware of any potential threats on the county level. He said the lack of communication among government entities before the Sept. 11 attacks is a perfect example of why there needs to be a department devoted entirely to preventing terrorism. “We need to (think) those in those terms … so we don’t repeat the situation at the federal level where agencies didn’t talk to each other,” Harris said. “Everyone can’t be the point. You can’t have all the dots and no lines to connect them.”

In the months before Stone was hired, Collin County officials investigated a man who was found in the courthouse copying down vital information about county facilities. A homeland security department, Harris said, would have informed all pertinent county officials about the threat. “We need to know about these things,” he said.

So far, Collin County appears to be the only county that has designated its own homeland security director. While many counties have emergency management directors and other officials working in the same capacity, Stone said naming such an official speaks volumes about Collin County’s commitment to fighting terrorism. “I feel like they were wanting to send a message,” he said.

Though he has only been on the job a short time, Stone has already plunged headfirst into his duties, developing several plans to increase the county’s security. A recently completed project is Stone’s smallpox plan, for use in case of a smallpox outbreak. The four-point plan, developed with the help of epidemiologists and local hospitals, includes the isolation of infected individuals, the post-outbreak vaccination of the general population and the inoculation of health care workers. The county’s health care workers will begin their preventative vaccinations in 2003, Stone said.

Harris said the smallpox plan would also include provisions for crowd control and easing panic. “You’d have to stop the mobs of people trying to get in (to the hospitals),” he said. “You have to identify some schools to use for temporary facilities.”

Stone is also responsible for managing the county’s $750,000 bioterrorism grant from the Texas Department of Health. Those funds will go toward improving the infrastructure of Collin County’s health care system, Stone said, increasing its ability to respond to a large disease outbreak or chemical threat.

Under Stone’s direction, Collin County is also expanding its anti-terrorism efforts beyond the county lines. Stone said the North Central Texas Council of Governments recently met and agreed to begin working with smaller counties nearby on homeland security issues. Those counties may not have the resources of larger ones, and could benefit from a partnership with their urban counterparts.

“We have done that in the past, but (we want) to be more aggressive in that direction, to come up with plans that are more regional,” Stone said. As the months go by, Stone said he expects to see more Texas counties designate their own homeland security directors. He is currently looking into the possibility of developing an association for Texas officials in positions similar to his, “to come up with better ways of doing our jobs.”

But above all, Stone said, he tries not to lose sight of his most important duty – ensuring the safety of the people he serves. “The scope of what I’m doing is all about more security for Collin County,” Stone said.

From Anthrax to Zealous Terrorists: New Grants Improve Local Governments’ Homeland Security

With several major cities and more land area than every state but Alaska, Texas may very well be a prime target for terrorists someday. Destruction of major parts of the state’s 300,000 miles of roadway, 260,000 miles of electrical lines and 49,000 bridges could constitute a bigger disaster than the World Trade Center.

“We’ve got lots of stuff you can take out and cause quite a bit of disruption and panic," said Ken Nicolas, deputy director of the governor’s division of criminal justice, at TAC’s pre-legislative conference in November.

With so many citizens and so much infrastructure to protect, it’s critical for Texas’ local governments to have adequate resources for anti-terrorism efforts. Fortunately, financial assistance is available – directly and indirectly – to counties for increased security. Originating from the federal government, these grant programs address various facets of homeland security and work to make Texas less susceptible to devastating attacks.

A large and recently-issued form of assistance is the Texas Department of Health’s bioterrorism grant program. Launched in May, the program distributed money to every Texas health department for the improvement of local health care infrastructure. Suzanne Sparks, director of TDH’s local public health support division, said the funds would help local governments develop more effective ways of dealing with anthrax, smallpox or other disease outbreaks.

Sparks said a large-scale biological attack would require the cooperation of federal, state and local government entities, and the grants will improve the chances of that happening.

“We’re not coordinated like that right now, nor are any other states,” Sparks said.

The $42 million grant amount, given to Texas by the U.S.

Department of Health, provided $20,000 to each local health department, plus an additional $1.42 for each citizen served by that department. “Those counties that do not have a local health department – the money went to our regional offices because they provide public health services there,” Sparks said.

The grants must be used to improve a health department’s performance in one or more of six “focus areas.” These areas include preparedness planning, epidemiology capacity and education and training.

Another eligible focus area is communication and information technology – the development of an online network that allows hospitals and health departments to quickly get word of an outbreak to surrounding areas. “It’s a system that can quickly share critical public health information, to notify the public health system there’s something they need to start working on,” Sparks said.

Many health departments are already setting up such communications systems. Tarrant County, for example, has used some of its $1.6 million bioterrorism grant to tie into the Texas Health Alert Network, a statewide “advanced notification system” connected to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, 200 local hospitals and 64 health departments. Once complete, it will cover 90 percent of the Texas population.

“It will serve as an early warning system for possible bioterrorism events, while supporting public health efforts locally, statewide and nationally,” said Louis Brewer, director of the Tarrant County public health department, in a statement issued earlier this year.

Vanassa Joseph, spokeswoman for Tarrant County’s public health department, said the grant has also funded 17 new staff positions and enabled them to purchase more laboratory equipment.

After a terrorist attack, law enforcement, fire departments, paramedics and more must respond quickly to minimize deaths and damage. Improving the capacity of such professionals is the aim of a new $8.5 million federal grant issued to Texas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Eighty-five percent of the grant, which was announced Dec. 12, will be distributed to local organizations by the governor’s division of emergency management. While several facets of emergency response will be improved by this grant, its guidelines emphasize response to incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. The federal funds were made possible through an appropriation included in President George W. Bush’s First Responder Initiative, which started during the 2003 fiscal year. Funding for that effort totaled $3.5 billion, a more than tenfold increase from FY 2002 amounts.

A grant has also been issued by the Governor’s Criminal Justice Division for peace officer training on the local level. Administered to the Texas Department of Public Safety, it provides $122,000 over six months for the professional education of state and local law enforcement officers on combating terrorism. Lee Pagel, TxDPS coordinator for anti-terrorism training, said his agency would use the money to conduct 16-hour courses throughout Texas.

“We had kind of an educational class on international terrorism – who they are, why they come, why they’re after America, different things that’s happened,” Pagel said. “We teach them how to share information, how to communicate anomalies. We want to expand the mindset of local officers to take notice and report those things.”

The courses also taught officers how to interpret non-verbal cues, recognize fraudulent documents and handle hazardous materials, Pagel said. The courses are currently out for bids now, but the year’s first training classes are expected to begin in late January.