September 20, 2007
Nevada's Homeland Security Committee Meets in Caliente

By Dave Maxwell

Photo by Dave Maxwell
Homeland Security Rural Communities Committee Chairman Bob Fisher and Rick Eaton, Director of Nevada Homeland Security Office.

Rick Eaton, the newly appointed director of Nevada’s Homeland Security Department was introduced by Governor Jim Gibbons at the Homeland Security Rural Communities Committee meeting in Caliente last Thursday. The meeting took place in the city hall council chambers in the old railroad depot.

Rural Community Committee Chairman Bob Fisher of Las Vegas, conducted the meeting. This included reports on such subjects as:

• $18 million Homeland Security grant funds for fiscal year 2007;
• -Report by Larry Casey on action taken regarding Homeland Security at the most recent Nevada Legislative session;
• Report via telephone, by Ernest Chambers Jr. of the Las Vegas Metro Police Department, on the efforts of Silver Shield, to identify what critical infrastructure the state has at the city, commercial, and rural level, including all forms of transportation, that if destroyed would render the state’s economy unusable;
• Report on efforts to make sure that statewide interoperable communications systems will be able to effectively communicate with one another;
• Report on a soon-to-be activated statewide Emergency Alert System;
• Report by Tanya Williams of the Nevada Division of Health and Human Services in Carson City, about the public health and public health preparedness concerns regarding acts of bioterrorism in the state, including the 14 rural and frontier counties and 26 federally recognized tribal nations in Nevada;
• Report by Committee Chairman Bob Fisher, who is also president of the Nevada Broadcasters Association, that Nevada has never had statewide Emergency Alert System (EAS) capabilities, but does expect to have the entire state connected by the end of 2007.