Rumors of faster Navy pullout cause Richardson to fret
By
Victoria Wallack, Times Record Bureau
AUGUSTA - Maine House
Speaker John Richardson, D-Brunswick said he's heard the same rumors
workers have that the Navy will shut down the Brunswick Naval Air Station
faster than it had originally agreed, leaving the region little time to
plan for redevelopment of the base.
Richardson said the anecdotal
information he's heard from people who work on the base, including those
who have talked to his wife, who has a medical practice in the area, is
"serious if real."
"My concern is what officials on the base are
being told ... and what is in print from the Department of Navy are in
conflict," in terms of the timetable for shutting the base down,
Richardson said. As for his wife, he said, "Patients are telling her
there's an accelerated timetable."
Richardson said the rumor is the
Navy would close the base in two years as opposed to full closure in five
years. And while Gov. John Baldacci told workers Tuesday there was no
change in the time frame, Richardson said Wednesday, "I'm concerned that
has changed to a degree."
Lynn Kippax, the governor's spokesman,
said the rumors aren't true.
The timetable the governor is
operating under from the Department of Defense would have 820 military
personnel out of Brunswick in 2009; 841 military workers departing in
2010; and 643 military out in 2011, with the downsizing of the much
smaller civilian staff also spread over those three years.
Kippax
said Baldacci has been told the base in Jacksonville, Fla., which will be
the new home for the planes now housed in Brunswick, "won't be ready to
receive the equipment and personnel on an accelerated
schedule."
John James, public affairs officer for BNAS, issued the
following statement this morning: "BRAC is an ongoing process that will
not be complete until the president and Congress take action on the
commission's recommendations.
By statute, any closure or
realignment must begin within 24 months and must be complete within six
years.
If the recommendation to close the Air Station becomes law,
the Navy, in consultation with the local community, will select the most
effective combination of transfer methods to return the property to
productive use and ensure equitable return for the Department of Defense
and the taxpayers. The methods selected will, in part, drive a complex
timetable that will include operational as well as infrastructure
elements."
Regardless of the original time schedule, Richardson
said state and municipal officials in the Mid-coast region "need to step
in very quickly" and start planning for the reuse of the base. He said
redeveloping the base to grow the economy of the Mid-coast will be "a
legacy for me."
While he doesn't want to predetermine what the
redevelopment authority established by Baldacci on Aug. 24 — the day the
Base Realignment and Closure commission voted to recommend closure of BNAS
— will come up with for a plan, he does believe the runways and hangars at
the base are unique assets that should be used.
"The last thing
Brunswick needs is 1,000 homes with $450,000 price tags" built on the base
land, Richardson said, calling residential development of the site a
"wasteful use of precious real estate."
Richardson said he could
envision a civilian airport there, with cargo planes and low-cost
passenger carriers. "Many people in Maine are heading to Manchester,
(N.H.) and to Boston" to get cheaper flights than what are available at
the Portland International Jetport. Brunswick could serve that
market.
Another possibility would be using the runways for testing
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for such things as combat surveillance, which, in
turn, would attract other defense contractors to the region once the Navy
leaves the base.
He also said Brunswick has been "stymied" looking
for enough land for a second business park and the base is "prime for
commercial development" because of its location.
His preference
would be that a new business park would draw new tenants and not steal
from other towns.
"Commercial space in Brunswick can't be used to
cherry pick the existing businesses in the region. We need to grow the
Mid-coast economy, not rob existing business," he said.
Richardson
said the state could help set up and bond an authority, modeled after the
Loring Redevelopment Authority. It would be premature to talk about the
size of the bond package now, he said, because redevelopment plans are not
yet formed.
Richardson also said the Legislature will not be coming
back into session this year to consider additional general obligation
bonds beyond those passed earlier this summer.
That was discussed
for the "worst case scenario of seeing all three bases (BNAS, Portsmouth
Naval Shipyard in Kittery, and a Department of Defense Accounting Facility
in Limestone) closed," he said. "Then it would have been appropriate to
come in and respond immediately to the loss. The (Brunswick) situation is
regionalized." |
