Monmouth County to stockpile pills in Millstone
Bioterrorism plan begins to take shape
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer

"In the event of a disaster, it isbeneficial for the residents in the 'panhandle' area to be able to access supplies and getassistance." - Nancy Grbelja

In the event of a large-scale emergency, many local towns may have to seek out Millstone Township for help.

Millstone Township has been established as a Monmouth County Regional Depot, which means that the county plans to place an emergency medical service trailer with stockpiles of antibiotics on property in the township.

Harry Conover, director of the county's Office of Emergency Management (OEM), said the county is still in the planning stages for this project. He would not release the names of the other depot sites in the county, as "they are still in the process of being surveyed."

Monmouth County is the second largest county in the state. Conover said that he is unaware that any other counties in the state currently have such a plan.

"The depots are part of the county's bioterrorism plan," he said. "Anything could happen. If planes could fly into the World Trade Center, anything could happen."

In Millstone Township, the county-owned Charleston Springs Golf Course would serve as the depot where pills and emergency equipment such as generators, lights, trucks and forklifts would be kept.

The depot would be manned with county employees and secured by the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office, according to Conover.

The depot in Millstone would mainly serve as a place where Millstone residents and people from the surrounding areas could go to pick up pills such as amoxicillin and Cipro in the event of a bioterrorism attack or flu epidemic, Conover said.

"It's about getting the pills out there in hand by mouth," Conover said.

Millstone's depot would service neighboring towns such as Roosevelt, Upper Freehold, Allentown, Englishtown and Manalapan, according to Conover. It would have enough stock to serve about eight neighboring municipalities, he said.

The bioterrorism plan is federally funded, according to Conover. The cost to set up and run the depots would take all the federal money the county gets for homeland security for one year, he said, which is between $300,000 and $400,000.

"The '07 funding hasn't come in yet, and we don't know how much we're going to get," he said.

Being a depot would not burden a township, according to Conover, but he said that in the event of an emergency, "there would be a lot of traffic because people would be looking to get medication."

The benefits of being a depot are that the county would provide additional manpower to Millstone in a crisis, and all Millstone Township first responders and their families would be served at the depot first so that they could attend to others, according to Mayor Nancy Grbelja.

Grbelja, who was recently named OEM coordinator for the township, said Millstone shall assume a leading role in any potential disaster.

"We will not only take care of our residents, but we may also have to take in other residents to help us," Grbelja said.

She said the county most likely chose Millstone as a depot "because we expressed interest and we have county-owned lands within our township."

She continued, "In the event of a disaster, it is beneficial for the residents in the 'panhandle' area to be able to access supplies and get assistance. Our available open space is also an important factor in the event [that] populations need to be evacuated from a specific location."

Since the county owns the property, the mayor said the township does not have to provide insurance and the county would maintain its protection.

The mayor said the township will soon survey its residents to see what their talents are and which type of services they could provide in the event of an emergency. The township is currently in the process of restricting its own OEM department and trying to better coordinate its emergency response teams.

Mayor