136th Year... and still on the job!	Sunday November 20, 2005

By MARGIE WOOD
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

The Pueblo County Department of Emergency Management, which had its origin in fears of the bomb during the Cold War, has had a big injection of funds in the days since 9/11 because of worries of global terrorism.

But the department stays busy year-round, trying to prepare Puebloans for a full range of hazards that might occur - from fire to flood to hazardous materials and, yes, even acts of terrorism.

Steve Douglas, director of the department since 1988, came to Pueblo as a county planner with some experience as a firefighter and ambulance driver. As a planner, he wrote the county's comments on congressional legislation governing the demilitarization of chemical weapons stored at then-Pueblo Army Depot, plus the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program.

His boss at the time, Jim Spaccamonti, had the vision of putting both the CSEPP program and a Geographical Information System in a single agency with the Civil Defense functions, and to build a county emergency operations center.

"Timing is everything," Douglas said. "If you look at the county budget back in 1990, you'll see $435,000 to build the emergency operations center in the basement of the Judicial Building. By March 1990, the feds said they would give us $250,000 to remodel an existing building.

"By May 1990, when I went to the second national conference on CSEPP, the approach had changed entirely and they said, ‘Show us your plans.’ I came back to Pueblo and completely upgraded our plans. We ended up with $5.4 million worth of work here, almost entirely paid for by federal funds."

The space under the Judicial Building had been the county jail, and it still is a secure facility. Also in the basement is the sheriff's dispatch center, which for a few years also served the Pueblo police in a combined operation.

"Our original idea on the GIS was to have one center that could combine the databases of the assessor, a topographical map and environmental information, and all those tools fit well into emergency management," Douglas said.

As that program grew, he eventually handed it over to the county's information technology department, although its physical home remained in the emergency operations center until after 9/11.

"We've been locked down here since 9/11, and the GIS needs to be accessible to people," Douglas explained.

When the Civil Defense agency evolved to include CSEPP and the emergency operations center, the new conglomeration was called Public Safety and Operations.

"That was the wrong name for us," Douglas said. "People were thinking law enforcement."

The Department of Emergency Management is divided into two offices. The Office of Emergency Preparedness, headed by Karen Ashcraft, does the old Civil Defense functions and it also directs the Pueblo Emergency Response Team, a group of about 50 volunteers who help with wildland firefighting, search and rescue and medical support.

The firefighting and search/rescue operations are actually statutory responsibilities of the county sheriff, "so we do it at the sheriff's behest," Douglas said. "Our volunteers give thousands of hours of service every year to the people of Pueblo County. They do a great job." A paid staffer is present every time a volunteer team is sent out.

He is proud that the fire departments around the county all practice mutual aid. "In the Mason Gulch fire last summer, we saw every department in Pueblo County helping," he said.

Carl Ballinger is coordinator of the CSEPP program, which is almost entirely funded by the federal government.

"We have some spikes in our budget, but normally we are funded about 80 percent federal and 20 percent county money," Douglas said. "The federal money is mostly CSEPP."

But Douglas said he has insisted throughout the process that CSEPP money and equipment must be available for other purposes as well. It has to have a legitimate CSEPP purpose, but it can be used for other hazards rather than sitting idle awaiting an emergency at the chemical depot.

"I believe firmly that that's in the taxpayers' best interest," Douglas said. "The same is true for Homeland Security funds now. The big buzzword is ‘interoperable communications.’ All that means is, when people from different agencies get on the scene to do a job, they can talk to each other."

Between two grants recently, the department received about $3.8 million to improve the emergency radio system - $2.2 million from CSEPP and $1.5 million from federal mineral/energy impact funds administered by the state Department of Local Affairs.

Douglas also is the coordinator for grants to a five-county "all hazards" consortium under Homeland Security, which has been given the region about $1 million a year the past two years. Most of that funding has gone to the outlying counties (Huerfano, Las Animas, Custer and Fremont).

"I'm hoping we can get a good amount to help the City of Pueblo move their radio program ahead when they build a new police headquarters. We're in the process of studying all communications systems in Pueblo County and looking toward that next generation of radios," Douglas said.

He's also looking forward to delivery of a 40-foot-long truck carrying a mobile command unit, which is being built now and should be finished early next year. It will be titled to Pueblo County but will be available for all hazards in the five counties - fires, floods or other storm, searches or hazardous material incidents.

Between the actual emergencies and equipment acquisition process, Douglas and his crew try to keep the planning process updated.

"But what makes it interesting is watching how this community responds to real-world events," he said. "We could have said ‘no’ to Katrina victims, but we didn't. A lot of different agencies helped, but it was Posada who raised their hands and said ‘We can take a lead role in that.’

“That's the piece I love about this job, watching how folks stretch to help each other."