AUGUSTA -- State officials are scrambling to create a $7.5 million spending plan that will get police, fire and emergency medical services on a common wavelength.

"At the end of the day, if we can't talk to each other, we really can't manage," says Robert McAleer, director of Maine Emergency Management Agency.

The money, a one-time grant announced recently by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is part of a larger anti-terrorism grant awarded the state through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

McAleer said the money will help first-on-scene personnel talk to each other by setting up an infrastructure and getting equipment and software in place.

"The incompatibility of emergency equipment hampered the response to victims of the 9-11 attacks and of Hurricane Katrina," Collins said in a news release announcing the grant. "This funding will help ensure that Maine's police officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel can talk with one another during disasters, whether they are natural or manmade."

Collins is ranking member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

McAleer said the money cannot be put toward anything already in a budget and requires the state to develop a statewide "communications interoperability" plan.

"We have to look out there and say, 'If that's the plan and that's the road forward, what do we need?'," McAleer said.

He also said the program must dovetail with the an ongoing antenna program overseen by the state's Office of Information Technology.

Some $1.5 million will be set aside for training and the remaining $6 million will require some matching funds by the state or local communities, he said.

McAleer said the state's application for the $7.5 million in funds must be sent to the federal government by Aug. 20.

Next, a preliminary statewide communications program must be submitted by Sept. 30, he said.

Last week, Gov. John E. Baldacci announced the makeup of a 14-person committee to prepare an interoperable communications plan for public safety purposes.

A preliminary report is due by Oct. 1 and a final report by the end of the year.

The commissioner of the Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management, or his designee, is to lead the committee, which is to include commissioners of the departments of Public Safety, Conservation, Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, Marine Resources, Transportation and the Public Utilities Commission, and the chief information officer in the Department of Administrative and Financial Services.

Other representatives are to come from municipal and county governments, local police, sheriffs, fire chiefs and hospital emergency services.

"We've got some work to do," McAleer said.

"Maine's first responders use homeland security grant funding for emergency planning, risk assessments, mutual aid agreements, equipment, training and exercises," according to the release from Collins' office. "Maine's long international border, its expansive coastline and its proximity to major populations centers such as New York and Boston require the state to be prepared to stop terrorists before they strike, to train for all hazards and to deal with looming threats such as a pandemic disease."

Betty Adams -- 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com