Missouri is getting more than 11-million dollars in homeland security money from the federal government. The money is going to be used for more than protection agaisnt terrorist attacks.
In all, Missouri will get more than 28.4-million dolars. But more than half of it will go to Kansas City and St. Louis for urban security initiatives. The next biggest chunk will be funneled through the state homeland seucrity office to nine regional boards. They’ll spread the money to nine regional advisory boards to local governments to meet local needs and capabilities.
State Homeland Security Coordinator Paul Fennewald says the local capabilities will come together for a regional response to terrorist attacks or catastrophes—such as a major flu outbreak.
Fennewald says the 11-milion dollars sounds like a lot of money. Federal guidelines say 80 percent of the money has to be spent on local initiatives or sent out to local governemtns to spend on their own initiatives. He says it’s always a struggle to stretch that money over all of the programs in the nine regions of the state.
Upload Bob Priddy’s interview with Paul Fennewald (4:15 mp32)