Kempthorne tours
Hailey airport
Security continues
to evolve
By TRAVIS
PURSER
Express Staff Writer
Gov. Dirk
Kempthorne said last week that the Idaho National Guardsmen who now wield
M-16 rifles at Hailey’s Friedman Memorial Airport and five other
airports around the state are "on the front lines of our homeland
defense" and are playing an important part in helping "life to
go on" in Idaho.
Kempthorne
praised the work of the guardsmen when he and Idaho Adjutant General Jack
Kane toured Friedman and airports in Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Twin Falls,
Boise and Lewiston Wednesday of last week.
The
governor and general inspected airport security arrangements implemented
since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast. They also toured
the Hailey Armory, where the guardsmen may continue to be stationed for up
to six months while the federal government works on long-term airport
security arrangements.
Kempthorne
also announced the activation of the new Idaho Airfield Security Hotline.
The toll free number—(800) 832-1985—is intended to allow airport users
to report suspicious activity to law enforcement at any time.
The tour
took place the day before the FBI issued a nationwide warning that it had
received information indicating new terrorist attacks against the United
States could happen in the next several days. In Idaho, "we’re
simply trying to expect the unexpected … to anticipate what our
vulnerability might be," Kempthorne told a gathering of about a dozen
people that included guardsmen, airport management and the press in the
airport terminal.
Friedman is
a "major airport in Idaho," said Idaho National Guard spokesman
Lt. Col. Timothy Marsano. "Who knows where the next threat is going
to come from?"
Kempthorne
said the federal government is paying for the cost of the guardsmen, whom
he assigned to the airports on Sept. 27. The guardsmen are under the
command of the governor, and have received training in airport security
from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Staff Sgt.
Mathew Fletcher patrolled the terminal with an M-16 rifle slung across his
shoulder. He said his training included strict rules of engagement that
allow him to use the weapon only during a "hostile attack or
intent."
When asked
about the escalated show of weaponry, public affairs officer Marsano said,
"It was a way of getting a highly visible, trained and armed National
Guard presence."
The United
States Senate Thursday unanimously approved the Aviation Security Act,
which requires heightened security at airports, including the use of
federal armed law enforcement at airports. The act could face changes
before going before the House of Representatives for a final vote.
Marsano
said Friday that it was still too early to know how the legislation might
change current security measures.
"I don’t
have any reason to believe we’ll be (in Hailey) for less than six
months," he said.
The
proposed legislation also calls for more federal air marshals on flights,
more secure cockpit doors, passenger and baggage checkpoints to be staffed
by federal employees, air crew training in anti-hijacking techniques and
background investigations of jet pilots students.
Idaho
Republican Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo praised the act.
Hailey
airport manager Rick Baird said he has been closely following the act as
it makes its way through Congress. "We don’t think it will increase
our security costs," which have skyrocketed since Sept. 11, he said.
In late
September, Baird said new FAA-imposed security requirements would cost the
airport over $400,000 annually, almost half of the airport’s total
budgeted expenditures of $850,000 for 2002.
Airport
management has since been able to defray most of those costs by shifting
some security responsibilities to employees of the company that manages
the parking lot and by increasing parking fees.
Parking
fees have generally gone up by a dollar an hour, and the company no longer
grants free parking for the first half hour. Monthly rates have gone up
from $90 to $100. The increases are expected to generate an extra $70,000
annually.
"We
think we’ve got a handle on costs, but that could change," Baird
said, because airport security requirements since Sept. 11 have been
constantly evolving.