NIISSA To Begin Scaling Back Operations At Gary Airport
The Northwest Indiana Information Sharing and Security Alliance (NIISSA) today announced it will scale down its Emergency Operations Center at the Gary/Chicago International Airport by May 15th, Mayor Jerome Prince said in release Thursday.
NIISSA, which plans to build a $10 million multi-agency coordination center on property at the airport, launched its EOC at the airport terminal in March to coordinate meeting the COVID-19 response needs of 17 hospitals and other medical facilities across five counties, said Stephen Scheckel, president of NIISSA.
“I believe we’ve all done a great job working with the five counties in Indiana Homeland Security District One, local officials and medical facilities to address this pandemic throughout Northwest Indiana,” Mr. Scheckel said. “And, we received a great amount of support and leadership from Gary Mayor Jerome Prince, Duane Hayden, executive director of the airport, and his staff.”
NIISSA will keep a minimal operation at the airport, prepared to ramp back up if a major surge in new COVID-19 cases occurs. The group supplied personal protective equipment, cleaning and sanitizing agents to area medical facilities, and even secured 34 ventilators from General Motors and Ventec Life Systems.
NIISSA also secured 18 refrigerated trailers, donating six of them to the State of Indiana, and the agency received two semi-trailers of hand sanitizer that are being bottled and delivered to hospitals, nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
Mayor Prince said NIISSA has been invaluable in fighting the spread of the COVID-19 virus and in helping medical facilities treat patients. Also, the strong relationship between the City of Gary, the Gary/Chicago International Airport and NIISSA demonstrate different entities can work together successfully.
“Man-made and natural disasters generally do not respect boundaries, so it makes no sense to divide ourselves based on geographical boundaries,” Mayor Prince said. “NIISSA has been an invaluable part of our fight against the COVID-19 virus, and this shows we all can work together as a region to get things done.”
