Review of security funding delayed Priority list to be redrafted for Feb. 17 Penobscot County meeting

BANGOR – A Penobscot County committee Monday scrapped plans to review requests for federal homeland security funds, arguing instead to begin the process anew.

Penobscot County Emergency Management Agency Director Tom Robertson had prepared to present the first of what could be many requests for U.S. Department of Homeland Security funds for the county amounting to more than $400,000, not including other funds earmarked for specific high-risk communities like Bangor.

The intent was for the committee, composed of police, fire, hospital and other emergency response personnel, to review it and forward it to the state.

But early in the meeting, committee members derailed the planned presentation. Even as Robertson prepared to proffer a $65,900 request from the town of Levant for radios and rescue equipment, Bangor Fire Chief Jeff Cammack said the process was flawed and put the cart before the horse.

Rather than continue, Cammack pressed for and got another meeting Feb. 17, by when a priority list of what should be funded could be drafted.

“What we have to do for this county is decide what’s best for us,” Cammack said.

Rayna Leibowitz, chief of the planning division for the Maine Emergency Management Agency, concurred that more input was needed.

“What I’ve seen, what I’ve heard tonight, there isn’t a big picture that’s developed and you have to do that,” she told the gathering of about 20 people.

Committee members and state officials said revisiting the process doesn’t mean starting over from square one. Instead, they said it would build upon what’s already done.

In the past year, Robertson has stressed inclusion of various stakeholders and last July held a meeting to promote awareness of the funds and requirements. Robertson warned that by delaying action until March 2005 – the deadline for requests – the committee would be taking no action in getting necessary resources into the hands of the people who need them.

A growing point of contention among committee members and the local agencies they represent is the Penobscot Regional Communications Center, which dispatches for nearly all the county, with the exception of Bangor and Lincoln.

Robertson called the issue an elephant, because it is so huge.

Critics like some local fire departments have said the system the PRCC uses is geared more toward police dispatching than fire dispatching and that it doesn’t meet their needs.

Revamping the communications center operations, likely an expensive proposition, had some committee members concerned it would take up all of the funding available and possibly require more.

Brewer Fire Chief Rick Bronson questioned whether a solution to the communications issue would overshadow other concerns or that a solution could be made in time.

“It could be that we will not totally solve the PRCC problem and have a final budget for the grand solution on the table before we’ll have to decide about some of this,” Bronson said.

Penobscot County Commissioner Tom Davis argued that ultimately it was up to the will of the people in the county. He asked Bruce Fitzgerald, a homeland security planner with the state, whether state officials would support a funding request involving the dispatch that had been endorsed by a majority of those represented in the committee.

“We’d be hard pressed to say no,” Fitzgerald answered.