Anchorage Daily News

Alaska's first enrollment centers for workers accessing secure areas of ports have opened in Juneau, Kodiak and Anchorage, with two more to open soon in Nikiski and Valdez.

Several mobile enrollment centers will also open in Alaska to cut the cost of registering for the so-called TWIC card, or Transportation Worker Identification Credentials.

The mobile sites, in addition to Kodiak, include Cordova, Dutch Harbor, Petersburg, Wrangell, Craig, Ketchikan, Sitka, Skagway and Haines.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on May 2 announced the final compliance date for obtaining the cards had been moved from Sept. 25 to April 15, 2009.

The TWIC card is meant to identify Coast Guard-credentialed mariners and personnel requiring unescorted access to secure areas within ports.

To date, more than 100 fixed enrollment centers and dozens of mobile sites have opened nationwide.

Workers can pre-enroll online at www.tsa.gov/twic, where they can provide basic information and schedule a time to complete the application process in person, government officials said.

EXPENSIVE INITIATIVE

Initially, the only designated registration locations for Alaska were in Anchorage, Juneau, Valdez and Nikiski.

But government operators and private firms conducting business at Alaska's ports have expressed concern that compliance with the TWIC program could cost them millions of dollars, unless contractor Lockheed Martin provides mobile registration facilities.

Lockheed Martin has a $70 million contract with the federal Transportation Security Administration to register the nation's port workers and all others conducting business at ports for transportation worker identification credentials.

To register, individuals must apply in person, complete background check paperwork and be fingerprinted. Once the cards are issued, individuals must return to the site to personally retrieve the cards, which allows them admission to all U.S. ports.

The cards cost $132.50 and are good for five years.

PROGRAM QUESTIONED

Some question if the new measures are even needed.

Brad Brown, safety and security manager for Horizon Lines, a major cargo transporter in Alaska, said stakeholders at the Port of Anchorage already pay $1.8 million annually for a security program that works well.

"We have covered all our bases, background checks. Nobody comes through (the port) without cards and an ID sticker in the vehicle window," he said. "We've met or exceeded the requirements of TWIC at Anchorage."

At Kodiak and Dutch Harbor, Horizon Lines also already meets the strict security requirements of the U.S. Coast Guard, he said.

The irony of the whole program, according to Andrew Heuscher, director of safety for Alaska Marine Lines in Juneau, "is that you can apply for a passport and send (the application) in.

"How is the TWIC card so much more security-sensitive than a passport? If they can mail a passport, why don't they feel comfortable mailing a TWIC card?"

Dutch Harbor port director Alvin Osterback said he could understand the need for high-level security at ports like Tacoma and Seattle

"But we are a fishing industry, and what comes and goes here are products for the fishing industry and products related to the fishing industry," he said. "I don't think it's the proper place for New York harbor-style security."

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