Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Date: 1/25/2002
Category: News
Page: B2

Bomb threat at Pine Bluff Arsenal costs 800 workers lost wages

EMMETT GEORGE
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

**STATE EDITION**

WHITE HALL -- About 600 construction workers at the Pine Bluff Arsenal were sent home Wednesday after arsenal officials received a bomb threat on a telephone voice mail, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Arsenal officials received the threat about 11:30 a.m.

The arsenal's bomb squad searched the installation but found nothing, said Ann Gallegos, a spokesman for the Pine Bluff Chemical Activity.

Workers evacuated from the site where a $660 million chemical weapons incinerator plant is being built. Other employees went to emergency staging areas during the search, Gallegos said. Other arsenal operations experienced no effects, she said.

"I regret that this occurrence resulted in a lost day of construction in support of our overall objectives to begin the elimination of the chemical stockpile," said Randy Long, the facility's site project manager. "In addition, I personally regret that this event has resulted in more than 800 families experiencing lost wages."

About 600 construction employees on the 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m. shift were given two hours' show-up pay, according to terms of their union agreement.

An additional 200 second-shift workers, who work 6 p.m.-4 a.m., were instructed not to report for work Wednesday evening.

"First shift was unable to prepare for second shift activities," said Dan Swaim, the project general manager for the Washington Demilitarization Co.

The bomb threat was the first at the project site, and the FBI is investigation, Gallegos said.

About 2,000 people work at the arsenal, where 12 percent of the nation's chemical-weapons cache is stored. Construction of the incinerators began in 1999. Destruction of the munitions is expected to begin in 2003 and be complete by 2008.