BRIEFLY METRO

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Feb 3, 2006 | by THE GAZETTE

Springs gets federal grant

Colorado Springs received $704,092 from the federal government as reimbursement for money spent on emergency response and terrorism prevention.

Of that amount, $186,000 was spent on equipment to disarm bombs, and $518,000 for communications equipment. The money came from the Department of Homeland Security's 2004 Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program Grant.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office received $23,918. The money, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, reimbursed the county for salaries for wildland firefighters who helped during the Hurricane Katrina response and for participating in a state training exercise.

Fountain will host forum

Fountain will host a daylong forum next week to hear from the public about how the city should develop.

Topics will include what industries the city should target and ways to build the retail and service business base.

The forum will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday at City Hall, 116 S. Main St.

Seven economic development experts from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade and the Economic Developers Council of Colorado will attend to collect comments.

The group will present a report on its findings and hold a question-and-answer session at 9 a.m. Feb. 10 at City Hall.

Security drill called a success

An overnight drill Wednesday to prepare for providing security during Super Bowl XL on Sunday in Detroit was a success, said Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

NORAD, based at Peterson Air Force Base, conducted its first exercise with an array of other agencies on Jan. 26. But cloudy weather prevented all phases of the rehearsal from being carried out. There were no problems this week.

"We met all our objectives, and we're ready for game day Sunday," Kucharek said.

He said that if Sunday brings low clouds, "we'll work through it, because you have air security, but you also have, from a Northern Command perspective, other security measures in place on the ground."

Kucharek said the FBI is the lead agency for ensuring the event's safety.