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SCHENECTADY COUNTY
Homeland Security grant cut would affect hazmat training
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com

   A major cut in Homeland Security grants would hurt hazmat training in Schenectady County, Schenectady Fire Chief Robert Farstad said.
   Farstad, who also oversees the county’s hazmat team, said grants wholly support the training costs for his 32 hazmat firefighters.
   The Homeland Security Department pays for each firefighter’s weeklong, regular training, as well as lodging, food and transportation. Homeland Security also issues grants to cover the overtime cost to backfill while the fi refighters are away, Farstad said.
   “I send them to world-class training in three different states,” he said. “I think it’s very important. You can’t train the day after. You have to have training before.”
   Paying overtime to cover one trainee’s shifts costs $2,000 to $2,500, Farstad said.
   In the county’s emergency management office, Homeland Security grants also pay the salary for one position, currently vacant, Emergency Management Director William Van Hoesen said. Grants pay a portion of his salary, too.
   “This would have a definite effect on us,” he said.
   As for the contention that some Homeland Security grants have been wasted, he said the county used its money wisely.
   The city received roughly $750,000, which went mostly to hazmat training, new turn-out gear and better self-contained breathing apparatus. The compressed air masks and regulators were needed so that city firefighters could share their gear with nearly every department in the state, allowing quicker gear-up at mutual aid scenes where off-duty firefighters are called to help, Farstad said.
   “You throw me a mask in the middle of the night I’ve never used before. Can I use it eventually? Yes. Can I do it quickly? No,” Farstad said. “Now we have what probably 95 percent of the fire departments in the state have.”
   Homeland Security grants also paid for a new mobile command center, replacing a 20-year-old vehicle, Van Hoesen said.
   “What we’ve done is try to take things we use every day and upgrade and strengthen those,” he said, noting that the command center is used frequently but would be invaluable at a major security incident.
   The command center spent two weeks in Glenville last month when the police dispatch center was flooded by a broken water line. Workers moved to the van and dispatched every police and fi re call from there for 10 days while the building was cleaned.
   Van Hoesen said such uses show that the grants are being used well.
   “We’re the ones who are going to respond and be there for you,” he said. “A bunch of guys in Washington aren’t going to help you if it’s flooding here.”  

  
  
  

I say get NYRA/OTB/LOTTO etc to pay for it and manage it.....HOW MANY BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN GAMBLING REVENUE DOES THE STATE HAVE AND WHERE DOES IT GO????

So, this cut just goes to show what McNulty and Clinton / Schumer are really doing for Schenectady County down in D.C.  Nice way to finish up your career, Mr. McNulty.

I say, that since the national guard already has hazmat training, let them handle a hazmat emergency if needed. Let the local fire dept. put out fires. Let the local EMT's handle emergency medical calls and let the local police department handle the criminals. Let the National Guard handle a hazardous material call.