(The following story by Kay Luna appeared on the Quad City Times website on November 18.)
CLINTON, Iowa — Clinton County’s emergency management coordinator didn’t expect much in return when he filed a nearly $23,000 bill with the federal government.
Wally Henry said he now stands corrected and very happy.
Henry’s office received a check last week for $19,850 in federal Homeland Security reimbursements, covering a portion of the county’s security costs at Clinton’s swing-span railroad bridge during a heightened terrorism alert in March and April.
He said the check from the Iowa Department of Emergency Management will be split between his office and the Clinton County Sheriff’s Department, with $17,300 going to the sheriff’s budget and $2,550 covering his office’s expenses.
The check is smaller than he requested, but Henry said he doesn’t mind.
“They reduced it by about 13.6 percent, with no explanation why,” Henry said. “But I didn’t expect to get any reimbursement monies, so I was quite content when that came.”
Clinton’s privately owned Union Pacific Railroad bridge over the Mississippi River was one of two structures in Iowa identified as a “critical site” to protect from the threat of terrorism in mid-March, just before U.S. military troops invaded Iraq.
After receiving word from Iowa’s Homeland Security office in a late-night conference call, Henry and a host of other county and city officials brainstormed strategies to implement 24-hour security at the site.
Although a specific threat had not been made, officials pinpointed the bridge because of its role as the railroad’s main east-west line from Los Angeles to Chicago. Union Pacific officials said the bridge carries 60-70 trains per day, and also swings open to let barge traffic through the channel.
Another bridge in Fort Madison, owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, also was under close watch during the alert.
Henry said the extra security detail at Clinton?s bridge began March 19 and continued through April 4, with help from the sheriff’s department, Clinton police department, Iowa National Guard, Iowa State Patrol, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Iowa Department of Transportation.
Those involved spent hours planning how the security would run and many more hours making sure it was effective, Henry said.
Clinton police made beefed up efforts to check on the bridge during regular patrol shifts, but did not spend enough money to qualify for reimbursements, he said.
Illinois officials also worked to secure the bridge on that side of the river, Henry said, although he did not know if Whiteside County qualified for similar federal reimbursements.
“Immediately, what we did is we started keeping track of expenditures,” Henry said. “We kept track of Clinton County employees’ hours devoted strictly to that cause, and equipment.”
The county’s biggest expenditure was use of Sheriff Rick Lincoln’s mobile command van. At a cost of $50 per hour for 387 hours, Henry said the sheriff’s budget was owed $19,350 for allowing security guards to use the van as their on-site headquarters.
Henry said that’s the same price spelled out in agreements with neighboring counties for the van’s use in law enforcement situations.
“The van is equipped with computers and radios,” he said. “It was their office-on-wheels in that location. It ran practically the entire time it was there.”
The van consumed 80 gallons of gas, at a cost of $112, he said.
The county’s bill also shows sheriff?s department spent 18 staff hours getting the van ready, delivering the van and attending meetings about the bridge’s security at a cost of $532.
The emergency management office devoted 94 1/2 staff hours, between Henry and his assistant, on the local impact of the terrorism alert. Those hours represented $2,885 in wages, he said.
The office’s long-distance telephone bill also increased by $124 during this time, from calls made about the security measures, he said.
“It was a situation that we proceeded with, but I think we were all reluctant because it is a private entity, private property,” Henry said. “When you expend taxpayers’ money to augment the security down there, I think the reimbursement is fair.”
Union Pacific was not expected to qualify for reimbursements, even though the company paid for huge concrete barriers, additional fencing and its own security force during this time. Signs of that extra security remain, Henry said.
“I don’t know that the threat has gone away,” he said. “It’s probably diminished, but that threat will be there for a long time.”