Local News

The city of Anniston, like other municipalities trying to help, found itself at the heart of a controversial federal renovation project at McClellan’s Starships. The county’s emergency management officials reviewed their plans to see what changes were needed to bring the disaster plan in line with a post-Katrina world.

After reviewing mistakes made further south, and comparing them to what Calhoun County had in place, the county’s emergency management officials say the area‘s disaster plan is in good shape. There are no communications problems here, as there were in New Orleans, and federal agencies have taken care of pre-staging for emergencies.

“Any time any type of disaster anywhere, we look at the plans,” said Dan Long, director of the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency. “Right now, as far as our response, nothing is changing at this particular point.”

For city officials – who are trying to sell the starships to an interested buyer – the experience was everything from inspiring to “eye-opening,” particularly when it came to dealing with federal agencies.

After Katrina, the city moved quickly to offer the Starships to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but Anniston Mayor Chip Howell said their understanding of how the buildings would be used was different from FEMA’s.

“I’m not sure it could happen again, but in parts of it, I would probably breathe a little deeper and attempt to think two steps ahead,” Howell said. “It would be more ‘Ready, Aim, Fire’ than ‘Ready, Fire, Aim.’ But I have no regret that we offered the buildings and helped out there.”

The Shaw Group, a contractor based in Baton Rouge, La., renovated the Starships for somewhere between $7.9 million and $10 million, according to a Government Accountability Office report in March. Both Howell and Jim Walker, the Alabama director of emergency management, said they were told a large number of Katrina victims in Mississippi would be taken to the starships in late September, but that transfer was cancelled when the victims chose to stay where they were.

The GAO cited the Starships as an example “where unclear responsibilities and poor communications resulted in poor acquisition outcomes”

Some thought that hurricane victims staying into hotels might be forced out of their rooms and head to the starships, but FEMA extended hotel vouchers and many stayed there.

“People stayed in hotels, and (the starships) didn’t get utilized the way they were originally envisioned,” Walker said. “We live in a country of free will.”

If anyone received any benefits from Katrina, it was the Joint Powers Authority, which got a major McClellan facility rehabilitated and ready to be sold.

The quick rehabilitation of the starships did impress Scott Bradshaw, the JPA’s property manager. Many subcontractors dropped what they were doing to help with the repairs, he said.

“I would never have ever attempted it, or put it out to a contractor to do in the timeframe we did it in,” he said.

But the starships have challenges that would test the most dedicated real estate agent’s salesmanship. The cavernous facility, with long hallways and graffiti left over from past military police classes, went through an enormous transformation last year, with mold removed, bathrooms repaired and grass cut down. But it remains configured as a campus and living area.

The JPA pays $1,300 to $1,400 a month to keep the air conditioning on in the building, which prevents mold from returning. JPA has marketed the property as a campus area, though Bradshaw said it could be subdivided into office space, assuming it was renovated again.

“It’s really not one set marketing scheme,” he said. “You look at the land, how it’s laid out and the total proposal of what to do with it. To say there’s one right way to market it would be incorrect.”

The JPA has not set a price on the buildings, said executive director Dan Cleckler, because the buildings have not been appraised and “no entity has gotten close enough to begin haggling over the price,” he said.

The buildings have attracted attention. Riley’s 2006 budget proposed moving the state trooper academy from Selma to the starship facilities, but the proposal stalled in part because of the opposition of state Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, chairman of the Senate’s Education Funding and Appropriations committee.

Former two-year college chancellor Roy Johnson supported the move but resigned this summer amid reports that he had placed relatives in high positions. Howell said he has contacted the current chancellor, Thomas Corts, and asked him to reconsider the proposal.

Blackwater USA, a private defense contractor, looked at the buildings earlier this year as a possible training site, but ultimately decided to opt for a similar set of buildings in California. But Cleckler said the company is still considering the site for other federal contracts as they arise.

For now, the refurbished starships serve as reminder of those desperate days after Katrina, when many expected New Orleans to pass from the Earth; when the community found itself hosting thousands of victims from the storm and when it responded to the suffering of others enthusiastic support.

“Hurricane Katrina was a very unique incident,” Long said. “I think personally a lot of people learned a lot of different things from it, good, bad and ugly. FEMA and Homeland security are on track to correct the things that went wrong. I just hope they never have to use it, to be honest with you.”