By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

WILMINGTON - Ohio's top emergency management official Tuesday told about 100 safety officials from southwestern Ohio that the state is far better prepared for terrorist attacks than it was two years ago, but that it plans to do much more.

"We started preparing before 9-11," said Dale Shipley, executive director of the Ohio Emergency Management Agency. "Events in the past year have placed greater emphasis on preparing for terrorism. The enemy has changed where we are and where we're heading."

Mr. Shipley was the main speaker at a regional terrorism conference held at the Roberts Centre near Wilmington. It was the sixth in a series of seven such conferences the Ohio Emergency Management Agency planned in various parts of the state. Police and fire officials and other emergency officials from 10 southwestern Ohio counties attended the conference.

Ohio has distributed $53 million in federal money throughout the state to beef up homeland security. The state expects to receive $4.6 million more in federal homeland security funding this year.

President Bush has asked Congress for $37 billion in security funding for 2003. Some of that would be used to create a federal Department of Homeland Security.

"There will be more federal money for us in the future, but we don't know how much," Mr. Shipley said.

But he said money isn't his biggest concern.

"More important than money," Mr. Shipley said, "is the federal government's commitment to long-term, consistent improvement in our capabilities to fight this enemy."

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com