Resting Easy, Part Eight

RESTING EASY, PART EIGHT

A FEW WEEKS ago, residents of eastern Long Island attended a community meeting during which they hoped to find out about the improved security and safety measures being taken at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center.

Late last year, Homeland Security took over the center, which had been run by the Dept. of Agriculture for decades. The lab's scientists work with foot-and- mouth disease, West Nile virus, swine fever—and after the takeover, quite likely other pathogens used for germ warfare. Any trouble there could be disastrous for residents on shore, as has been noted before in these pages.

Before the takeover, the research facility was a mess. Maintenance workers were on strike, security was lax, emergency procedures all but nonexistent—and books like Michael Carroll's Lab 257 weren't soothing any nerves.

So last week, just to let the residents who live near Plum Island know that Homeland Security was on the job and that everything was under control, it was announced that the sloppy, bumbling rent-a-cops who had been guarding the top-secret facility were now being joined by two federal agents. These two crack agents, it was also reported, will be working there on a part-time basis.

Wow! Two whole agents? Working part-time? And when they aren't guarding the labs, are they checking bags at LaGuardia? Maybe running drills at Penn Station?

It may be time for Long Island to stock up on Cipro, fresh water and ammunition.