Anniston Star
May 28, 2003

Anniston, county reach agreement on response team: $1.35 million in federal money will be used for firefighter training, equipment

By Nathan Solheim
Star Staff Writer
05-28-2003

The Anniston Fire Department will provide emergency response services in Calhoun County in the event of a hazardous materials or chemical weapons accident, according to a mutual aid agreement between the city and county signed Tuesday night.

The development clears the way for city officials to purchase hazardous-materials equipment and train firefighters with about $1.35 million in federal funds set aside under the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Plan.

While mutual aid agreements among emergency response organizations are not uncommon, Tuesday's development marks Anniston's first step into the effort to prepare for an accident at the Anniston Army Depot's chemical weapons stockpile.

For the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency, the agreement amounts to filling a critical void in their efforts to respond to a chemical weapons incident.

"This is not something that has been taken lightly," said Mayor Chip Howell. "We needed an immediate response group and we needed them to be trained properly. This enables us to do that."

Under the agreement, the Anniston Fire Department could also respond to other hazardous materials incidents unrelated to chemical weapons such as an overturned tractor-tractor carrying toxic substances.

Anniston Fire Chief Bill Fincher now has until the end of September to order hazardous-materials equipment and to schedule training for some of his firefighters.

He said the service could be fully operational in early 2004, though the service will begin being implemented within four to five months. Fincher hopes to get the entire department trained for hazardous-materials response, but said he'd start with 30 firefighters.

"Training will give us more knowledge and more expertise," Fincher said. "It will help our protection, but it will allow us to better serve and protect the public and it will be in areas we have not been able to protect them in the past."

The Calhoun County EMA had been working for several years to get hazardous-materials services and decided the Anniston Fire Department should get the responsibility because it's the only full-time fire department in Calhoun County.

The fire department will retain control of its own operations during hazardous-materials events and will have the authority to decide whether to respond to a non-chemical stockpile event outside the city. A chemical accident spreading from the depot will take priority over city emergencies as part of the overall chemical weapons response plan being put together by the county EMA.

"There's already a spirit of cooperation and coordination among first responders," said Delois Champ, the interim director of the Calhoun County EMA. "It's about helping where help is needed and I think this will expand on that."

In other business:
# The council hired Mercer Group, a private consulting firm, to perform an assessment study of the city's fire and police departments.

Council members voted for the study to get a sense of where the departments need to improve and what they do well. Councilman Ben Little said it was important to perform the study while Fincher, hired in 2003, and Police Chief Johnny Dryden, hired in late 2002, were still relatively new to their positions.

"I welcome any constructive criticism about better ways to do our job," Dryden said. "If someone has some expertise, I welcome that also."

The study will cost $33,000 for both departments.

# Council members also awarded a contract to Brown Roofing Company to replace the roof at the Anniston Public Library. The construction will cost $93,400 and is expected to begin this summer.

The next Anniston city Council meeting will be 7 p.m. June 10 at City Hall.