The Boston Globe - 19.08.2019

MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2019 The Boston Globe Nation/Region A

Pennsylvania, but also a gnaw-
ing question: Is no place safe
anymore?
“It was very difficult to talk
about, because the whole con-
cept [of more hardened securi-
ty] doesn’t agree with the Jew-
ish tradition, which is always
open and welcoming,” said
Joan Rosner, president of Holy-
oke’s Congregation Sons of Zi-
on, which won one of the three
$50,000 state grants and used
it, in part, to hold the first ac-
tive shooter training in the syn-
agogue’s 115-year history.
“Now we’re having to face a
situation where we’re having to
lock doors. It’s made us put in a
greeter,” at the entrance, she
said. “It’s not what we want it to
be. It’s not the open place we
want to be.”
Only a $75,000 program two
years ago, the Legislature this
year increased available fund-
ing to $500,000 in response to
the number of requests. Among
the applications filed by Jewish
organizations, plans for closed-
circuit surveillance cameras
and security lights were com-
monplace. But so were more in-
tricate measures, including
coded entry systems and panic
buttons.
One north-of-Boston syna-
gogue said it would buy camer-
as so advanced, it would be able
“to capture license plate num-
bers as well as facial recogni-
tion,” according to its applica-
tion. Several applicants said
they would install barriers,
such as concrete planters, to

uSECURITYGRANTS
Continued from Page A

help stop a vehicle from crash-

ing into the building.

A day camp that serves Jew-

ish children would have used

some of the grant money to

purchase 13 “blast-resistant

trash barrels,” in addition to

new lights and cameras. Local

police, which often provide se-

curity assessments for nearby

organizations, had helped iden-

tify its needs, camp leaders

wrote.

“Our sanctuary and rear

hallway would be impenetrable

by bullets,” a Hebrew academy

wrote in its request, which also

included replacing doors on

“safe rooms” and expanding its

alarm system by adding more

panic buttons. “Our job is to

make sure our children do not

have to think about their safe-

ty.”

One suburban synagogue, in

seeking a grant, said it had al-

ready taken several measures,

including buying a half-dozen

radios that would connect them

directly to local police via a one-

touch emergency button.

“Unfortunately, we’ve

reached a point in this country

that installing bomb-resistant

glass in a place of worship or a

preschool is now considered

standard practice,” said state

Senator Eric P. Lesser, a Long-

meadow Democrat who pushed

to increase the state grant pro-

gram’s funding. “There’s tre-

mendous unmet need.”

The Jewish Federation of

Western Massachusetts, in ap-

plying for a grant, told state of-

ficials that it alone had received

nearly $250,000 in funding re-

quests from seven of its local or-

ganizations, some of whom also

applied to the state. They were

hoping to buy everything from

steel door and window guards

to concrete bollards and securi-

ty glass, according to the appli-

cation.

Stewart Bromberg, the fed-

eration’s chief executive, said

the organization had hired a

consultant in 2017 to do a risk

assessment of each of its local

agencies as a way to improve se-

curity.

“Unfortunately, events start-

ed to unfold this year that made

it even more important,” he

said.

The October 2018 shooting

at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life syna-

gogue, which killed 11, was

among them. In Massachusetts,

officials also counted a record

177 anti-Semitic incidents in

2017 and 144 more in 2018, a

number that trailed only Cali-

fornia, New York, and New Jer-

sey.

Then in May, two arson fires

broke out at the Chabad Center

for Jewish Life in Arlington and

another at a rabbi’s Chabad

house in Needham in a matter

of days, sending a chill through

the community.

“I think we’re responding to

the national climate. It’s sad.

It’s sad that America has seen

so much violence and so much

hatred,” said Gail Schulman,

chief operating officer at

Waltham’s Gann Academy, a

Jewish high school awarded

one of the $50,000 grants.

“For us, this is a cost of do-

ing business,” she said. “We’re a

school. We want the kids to fo-

cus on learning and growing.

We don’t want people to be dis-

tracted by fear.”

Outside of the Jewish com-

munity, Harrington Hospital in

Southbridge was awarded the

third grant, a $46,000 infusion

that it intends to put toward de-

veloping a disaster-response

plan with local municipalities,

said spokesman Harry Le-

mieux. The hospital has refo-

cused its security measures

since 2017 after a nurse was

stabbed multiple times by a pa-

tient in the emergency room.

The state program was

launched two years ago to pro-

vide funds to nonprofits that

didn’t qualify under a similar

federal program designed for

“urban area” organizations,

such as those in Greater Bos-

ton.

Other states have launched

their own programs, too, some

backed by millions of dollars.

Lastyear,NewYorkmade$

million available for those tar-

geted by hate crimes, months

after awarding nearly $15 mil-

lion during an initial round of

grants. California officials said

in April they intend to create a

$15 million program for non-

profits, while Maryland officials

said they’ll award $3 million

this fiscal year.

Massachusetts officials plan

to accept applications for this

fiscal year in the fall, a state

spokesman said. The grants,

which the state has capped at

$50,000 per project, are re-

quired to go to at least one orga-

nization in Western, Central,

and Eastern Massachusetts.

The interest here among

Jewish institutions in the

grants is driven, in part, by

such organizations as the Jew-

ish Community Relations

Council of Greater Boston,

which publicizes their availabil-

ity to centers and synagogues.

“There is a level of anxiety

[in the community],” said Aar-

on Agulnek, the organization’s

director of government affairs.

“Safe places should be safe plac-

es. Programs like this and

smart target-hardening up-

grades can help promote peace

of mind.

“But,” he added, “it’s also not

the final answer to the prob-

lem.”

Reach Matt Stout at

[email protected].

Jewish nonprofits seek state grants to improve security

By Dan Elliott
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DENVER — From a tiny Pa-
cific island to a leafy Indiana
forest, a handful of sites where
the United States manufac-
tured and tested some of the
most lethal weapons known to
humankind are now peaceful
havens for wildlife.
An astonishing array of ani-
mals and habitats flourished at
six former weapons complexes
— mostly for nuclear and chem-
ical arms — because the public
and other intrusions were
banned for decades.
When they became obsolete,
the government converted
them into refuges under US
Fish and Wildlife Service man-
agement, but the cost is stag-
gering. The military, the US De-
partment of Energy, and private
companies have spent more
than $57 billion to clean up the
heavily polluted sites, accord-
ing to figures gathered by the
Associated Press from military
and civil agencies.
And the biggest bills have
yet to be paid. The Energy De-
partment estimates it will cost
between $323 billion and $
billion more to finish the costli-
est cleanup, at the Hanford Site
in Washington state where the
government produced plutoni-
um for bombs and missiles.
Despite the complicated and
expensive cleanups, significant
contamination has been left be-
hind, some experts say. This
legacy, they say, requires re-
strictions on where visitors can
go and obligates the govern-
ment to monitor the sites for
perhaps centuries.
‘‘They would be worse if they
were surrounded by a fence and
left off-limits for decades and
decades,’’ said David Havlick, a
professor at the University of
Colorado Colorado Springs who
studies military-to-wildlife con-
versions. ‘‘That said, it would be
better if they were cleaned up
more thoroughly.’’
Researchers have not exam-
ined the health risks to wildlife
at the cleaned-up refuges as ex-
tensively as the potential dan-
ger to humans, but few prob-
lems have been reported.
Most skeptics agree the ref-
uges are worthwhile but warn
that the natural beauty might
obscure the environmental
damage wreaked nearby.
The military closed the sites
to keep people safe from the
dangerous work that went on
there, not to save the environ-
ment, said Havlick, author of a
book about conversions,
‘‘Bombs Away: Militarization,

Conservation, and Ecological

Restoration.’’

‘‘It’s not because the Depart-

ment of Defense has some eco-

logical ethic,’’ he said.

Critics say Rocky Mountain

Arsenal in Colorado illustrates

the shortcomings of a cleanup

designed to be good enough for

a refuge but not for human hab-

itation.

Roughly 10 miles from

downtown Denver, the arsenal

was once an environmental

nightmare where chemical

weapons and commercial pesti-

cides were made. After a $2.

billion cleanup, it was reborn as

Rocky Mountain Arsenal Na-

tional Wildlife Refuge, with 24

square miles of idyllic prairie.

But parts of the refuge re-

main off-limits, including spe-

cially designed landfills where

the Army disposed of contami-

nated soil. Eating fish and game

from the refuge is forbidden.

Treatment plants remove con-

taminants from ground water

to keep them out of domestic

wells.

‘‘So there’s a huge downside

to converting it into a wildlife

refuge, because it allows residu-

al contamination to remain in

place,’’ said Jeff Edson, a former

Colorado state health official

who worked on the cleanup.

The Army is still struggling

with cleaning up Jefferson

Proving Ground in Indiana,

part of which became Big Oaks

National Wildlife Refuge.

Soldiers test-fired millions of

artillery rounds there, some

made of armor-piercing deplet-

ed uranium. Its radiation isn’t

strong enough to be dangerous

outside the body, but its dust is

a serious health risk if inhaled

or swallowed, the US Environ-

mental Protection Agency says.

Depleted uranium frag-

ments are scattered on the fir-

ing range among 1.5 million

rounds of unexploded shells,

which makes cleanup danger-

ous and expensive.

The Army told the Nuclear

Regulatory Commission it

could cost $3.2 billion to clean

the area for unrestricted use. Its

latest plan calls for waiting 20

years in hopes that better, less

expensive technology emerges

or the unexploded shells de-

grade to a safe level.

Rocky Flats National Wild-

life Refuge, a former nuclear

weapons plant northwest of

Denver, opened to hikers and

cyclists last September, but

some activists question wheth-

er it’s safe.

A $7 billion cleanup concen-

trated on the central area where

workers assembled plutonium

triggers for nuclear warheads,

and that area remains closed.

The refuge was created on

the perimeter buffer zone. State

and federal officials say it’s safe,

but skeptical activists filed a

lawsuit saying the government

didn’t test it carefully enough.

Hanford — where the clean-

up has already cost at least $

billion and hundreds of billions

more are projected — may be

the most troubled refuge of all.

Parts of Hanford’s buffer

zone are open to visitors, but

cleanup costs for an area where

contaminated waste is stored

are soaring.

Washington state officials

are worried that the Trump ad-

ministration wants to reclassify

millions of gallons of waste wa-

ter from high-level radioactive

to low-level, which could re-

duce cleanup standards and

costs.

The Energy Department

told the state it has no plans to

change the classification. State

officials say they want legally

binding assurances.

Mark Madison, the Fish and

Wildlife Service’s historian, said

if agency officials believed the

sites were unsafe for the public,

he said, they would not work

there.

‘‘They’re there all the time,’’

Madison said. ‘‘They’re not go-

ing to want to be in a place with

chemical pollution or radiation

problems.’’

Former weapons sites now wildlife havens

Cleanupshave

cost$57bsofar

DAVID ZALUBOWSKI/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, the site of a former

nuclear weapons plant northwest of Denver, opened to

hikers and cyclists last September.

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