Recent news that workers at the national visa center at Pease International Tradeport may have been exposed to anthrax has brought the threat of terrorism ever closer to home. Meanwhile, that threat has for weeks been a reality for state agencies and local law enforcement. NHPR's Josh Rogers reports.
According to state officials, New Hampshire's response to terrorist threats has been comprehensive and seamless. It's also likely to prove very expensive. How much, no one seems to know. Governor Shaheen says by next week the state should have a grip on what it's spent so far. In the meantime, she's already called on Washington to send immediate aid.
'We?ve got budgets that are overburdened because this is where the rubber meets the road. It is at the state and local levels where law enforcement is really responding.'
Deputy Commissioner of Safety John Steven says the state police will require an additional legislative appropriation to maintain it?s present state of alert. That heightened readiness, assures Steven, is shared by peace officers statewide.
'The vigilance of New Hampshire?s law enforcement is remarkable right now. If they se something that is out of the ordinary out or suspicious in nature than there going to have contact with the individual.'
Perhaps. But for small, chronically undermanned local pds, that standard may be unattainable. Joanne Hoyt says her experience with the Weare police was less than edifying. Officers responded to her call last week about a newspaper coated with a suspicious powder.
'They gave me gloves and a plain brown paper bag, and told me to put this newspaper with this stuff on it in the bag, to close the flap and to bring it back. They weren?t going any where near it, nor were they going anywhere near me.'
Hoyt says the lead officer initially assured her they would bring the sample in for testing, but had an abrupt change of heart.
'He looked at me and said, is that your dumpster over there. And I said do you want me to put it in there. And he said yes.'
Weare Chief of Police Miles Rigney, disputes Hoyt?s story. He insists all the half-dozen suspicious powder calls his department has answered have been handled professionally, and in accordance to state police protocols. But Rigney also says anthrax scare or not, police need to trust the same gut instincts they use every day. And those instincts, says Rigney, include weighing budgetary concerns.
'There is an awful lot of paranoia that just isn?t called for. You know we can?t tax the state labs on all the stuff that we?ve been doing.'
And state labs are indeed being taxed. Thus far more than 160 substances have been tested as possible pathogens. That?s meant a lot of overtime for overtime for state scientists, nurses and physicians. To say nothing of the cost associated with deploying the hazardous materials teams that collected the samples. Hazmat costs vary greatly, but according to the department of safety?s, John Steven, they don?t come cheap.
'To assemble the Hazmat team, plus the state lab resources, that?s a few thousand dollars each response.'
State officials are expected to begin their accounting of expenditures to date tomorrow.
