ARSENAL:  RETURN OLD ALERT RADIOS

By AMY RIGGIN/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Monday,  June 6, 2005  10:19 AM CDT

Those who live near the Pine Bluff Arsenal and have received new tone alert radios to warn them of an emergency should not throw the old radios away, officials said this week.

"People are beginning to throw them away," said Linda Johnson of Redfield, newly-appointed member of the Pine Bluff Arsenal Citizen's Advisory Commission, during a meeting Tuesday night at the Arsenal.

In a later interview, Johnson said she went to city hall at Redfield and asked them what to do with her old radio, only to find that they didn't know either. She said people were never given any instructions.

"After this, some people may do like I have done and go back and plug their old one back up," she said.

Upon hearing that some had been tossed, Commissioner Wayne Ruthven, director of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, said, "We need to get the word out" to hold on to the old radios.

Sandi Hensley, program manager for the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program, told commissioners that 8,820 of the new radios had been programmed by contractor Safer Systems of Kennewick, Wash.

Of those, 6,682 had been delivered as of Wednesday by United Parcel Service to homes, businesses and schools within a 9.5-mile radius of the Arsenal, according to Wayne Norton, public information officer for the Jefferson County Office of Emergency Management.

"That was a monumental job, getting 6,000 of them delivered," said Betsy Francis, vice chairwoman of the commission.

Distribution of the new radios began in early April.

Norton said UPS will attempt to deliver the radios three times before they are returned to the Joint Information Center at 123 Main St. Someone must be present to sign for the package.

"UPS is supposed to wrap up their efforts to make delivery Friday," he said.

After that, he said OEM staff will continue to try to make contact with individuals who did not receive radios. If the address is no longer valid, the radios will go back into inventory.

As of Wednesday, Norton said UPS still had 800 radios to deliver and had returned 1,338 to the JIC.

As for the old radios, Hensley told the commission that the federal government wants them back.

"We haven't finalized the plans, but what we are anticipating is that there will be a number of convenient drop-off points where they can simply bring their old radios and leave them," Norton said.

He anticipates that city halls at White Hall and Redfield will be used as drop-off points, and the office is considering additional sites as well.

So what if you've already thrown your old radio away?

"After the meeting, I checked on it Wednesday," Norton said. "The system has been tested and the new radios will work if necessary. So, for people who don't have an old radio, go ahead and plug the new one in. They are still covered even though we haven't switched over."

However, those who still have the old radios are encouraged to continue to use them. Norton said once all of the new radios are distributed another test will be done before the conversion.

Norton said the office had received "a lot of calls" from people asking what to do with their old radios.

"If they want to, they can plug both of them in," he added. "We continue to test with the old ones on a weekly basis."

He was unable to provide a timeframe for when the conversion to the new radios would take place.

The office received 15,000 radios in January. The remaining radios -- about 6,000 -- will be kept on hand to meet future demands, Norton said.

"They will be distributed as needed to people who were not in the database originally," he said. "We started with a database of 8,820, and we realized that there are people out there who are not in the database over the last few years, so we got those additional radios for that purpose."