Brownwood and Homeland Security ! Air & Rail Issues....
Pilot invades Bush air space, briefly lands in Abilene
By Jerry Daniel Reed / Reporter-News Staff Writer
August 24, 2005
A pilot who apparently infringed on restricted air space near President Bush's Crawford ranch home Tuesday, then failed to identify himself to authorities, landed briefly at an Abilene airport before taking off again.
President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush were in Idaho on Tuesday, vacationing between two public appearances to rally support for the president's policies in Iraq.
Detective Chuck Griffis of the Taylor County Sheriff's Department said he responded to the report of the plane landing at the private Elmdale Airpark in east Abilene early Tuesday afternoon, but arrived just in time to see the pilot take off again. The Secret Service requested someone try to contact the plane's pilot.
The pilot of the light private plane did not refuel during his stop at Elmdale Airpark because all employees were at lunch, said fueling station operator Sam Hunt.
From a brief glance into the cockpit, Griffis said it appeared that the lone occupant was a white male with ''nothing extraordinary'' about his appearance.
The incident appeared not to be a big deal, Griffis said, because no military planes pursued the light aircraft from Crawford.
Griffis said he wasn't certain that the plane had flown over the Bush ranch.
''The way it was given to me, he flew over Crawford air space,'' Griffis said.
After leaving Abilene, the plane headed north, Griffis said.
A check of the tail number given for the plane showed it is registered to a Florida company. A company officer said Tuesday afternoon that no immediate information was available from the firm.
Contact staff writer Jerry Reed at 676-6769 or reedj@reporternews.com.
source: http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/nw_local/article/0,1874,ABIL_7959_4025643,00.html
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Wednesday August 24, 2005
News
Warning sirens to be replaced with emergency phone system
By Steve Nash -- Brownwood Bulletin
Brownwood residents soon be getting weather-related and other emergency warnings from computer-generated phone calls rather than from the familiar, shrill warning sirens.
Brownwood City Council members approved an agreement Tuesday with Emergency Communications Network, Inc. for a system called CodeRed. The agreement is for a system in which an Internet-based, high-speed emergency telephone calling system will deliver customized, pre-recorded messages to homes and businesses at a rate of up to 60,000 calls per hour.
The city's bioterrorism grant will pay for the system, so the city won't pay anything for CodeRed, according to a memo to council members from City Manager Kevin Carruth.
CodeRed will replace the city's 11 sirens, which cost more than $12,000 a year to maintain and operate. The city also would need to replace a siren destroyed in a storm earlier this year at a net cost of $2,000 (after insurance) and would need to install a new siren in the Southgate annexation area for $9,000.
With CodeRed, messages can be delivered to the entire city, or to specific areas. Messages can tell residents about a number of topics from weather issues to water main breaks, street closures and even messages telling employees to stay home because of icy roads.
According to Carruth's memo, residents who are inside often don't hear the sirens, and when they do hear the sirens, they don't understand what the sirens mean. When that happens, residents flood emergency dispatchers with calls for seeking information, the memo states.
source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2005/08/24/news/news01.txt
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