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November 13, 2001 By Janelle Holden Plans are in the works to boost security at regional public-lands offices. Concerned more about homegrown terrorists than al-Qaida, the Dolores Public Lands Office, San Juan Public Lands Center in Durango, and Anasazi Heritage Center plan to carefully control building access. "Our concern is not so much terrorists representing bin Laden or anything like that, it would be a copycat — folks taking advantage of the crisis situation and performing acts of terrorism on their own," explained Mike Znerold, Mancos-Dolores District Ranger. Znerold said the Dolores Public Lands Office is asking for $50,000 from the Department of the Interior to make its compound more secure. "Basically, the emphasis is on the buildings, and protecting employees and visitors while they are in the buildings. That’s where the focus of our initial energy will be," said Znerold. The Dolores office buildings were built in 1937 in a Southwestern style with rustic mission-style architecture. Originally, the compound included a courtyard with stucco walls and wrought-iron gates. Currently, the courtyard between the four buildings is open, with nine access doors, and includes an area with picnic tables. Znerold said the original architecture and gates would be reproduced using the original 1937 building plan to preserve the historic character of the building. The new gates, however, will be locked to prevent visitors from reaching the outer buildings unattended. Employees will be allowed access through the gates, but visitors will be required to sign in at the front office, be issued visitor passes, and be escorted to offices by a government employee. "It used to be kind of casual and you could just kind of come in and if you knew where you were going you just went there. But that won’t be allowed to happen — everybody will sign in and be escorted," said Znerold. Government employees are currently wearing new identification badges, and Znerold said that contractual employees will be issued temporary badges as well. Also, the front-office door will be changed so that it opens out and a door will be installed to block the offices and restrooms in the front-office building. "The public access to the building will be through the front door," said Znerold. In addition, offices will be open only from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday — even employees will not be allowed access to the buildings at night or on the weekend. The Forest Service equipment-yard access will be closed and the parking lot for public-lands vehicles will be fenced and lighted. Znerold explained that the new security measures are based on the history of prior attacks on public-lands offices, which normally occur on evenings and weekends. "This leads us to believe that the attacks are not against the people, but against the facility," said Znerold. But the Forest Service recently received a threatening e-mail over a decision to close roads in the Boggy Draw area, and Znerold said that has influenced the new safety precautions as well. "We have to react to those, where in the past, maybe if we got something like that we would have said, ‘Oh, they are just venting.’ I don’t really feel like I have any discretion now to come to that conclusion. I have to take it seriously," said Znerold. Employees have readily agreed to the new security measures, but Znerold said the threats of terrorism are hard to work under. "Who would think in Dolores, Colorado, that we would have to worry about bombings or those kind of things?" |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez Journal.
All rights reserved. |
