Since 07-06-05
New England advocates push to overturn recommendations
Since 07-06-05
From:
Waspscpo@aol.com [mailto:Waspscpo@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 10:00 AM
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Subject: New England advocates push to overturn recommendations
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2005/07/06/new_england_advocates_push_to_overturn_recommendations/
New England advocates push to overturn recommendations
By Matt Viser,
BostonGlobe Staff
July 6, 2005
Advocates and politicians from around New England will ask an independent base
closure commission to save their home-state bases today, hoping to blunt
Pentagon recommendations that could close two major naval shipyards and other
bases in the region.
Busloads of supporters are coming from Maine and New Hampshire with bright
yellow shirts that say ''Save Our Shipyard." A group from Connecticut is
caravanning, donning white shirts that say ''SOS: Save Our Sub Base." Supporters
of Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod will sport blue shirts that say
''Save Otis."
Four members of the nine member Base Realignment and Closure Commission are
planning to attend the hearing at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center,
which will be carried live on the New England Cable News Networks from 9 a.m. to
5 p.m. Much of the hearing's focus will likely be on two shipyards -- Portsmouth
Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, and the New London Submarine Base in Groton,
Conn. -- that combined stand to lose nearly 13,000 jobs.
In addition, Massachusetts faces the closure of Otis Air National Guard Base on
Cape Cod. Defense specialists have speculated that the military won't end up
closing both naval shipyards because of the large toll it would take on New
England's economy.
Members of the closure commission last week publicly questioned the decision to
close Portsmouth. ''One of the things we have to look at is economic impact,"
commissioner James H. Bilbray said in an interview. ''And right now there is a
big impact on New England." Under the Pentagon recommendation, New England would
lose nearly 14,500 workers -- more than any other region, and half of the 29,000
that would be eliminated nationwide. But Massachusetts would fare well -- more
than 1,100 jobs would be transferred to Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford and
the military would pay for a huge expansion of the 846-acre base under the
current proposal.
Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee would add 10 planes and 80 jobs, Barnes
Municipal Airport Air Guard Station in Westfield would add 107 jobs, and the
Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick would remain open. The Massachusetts
delegation this morning plans to argue that closing Otis could leave the Boston
area with just two F-15's on alert stationed within a 175-mile radius. ''I
believe very strongly that Otis is too valuable to be closed and I look forward
very much to making Otis' case," Senator Edward M. Kennedy said yesterday.
The Pentagon recommendations will be reviewed by the commission, which is to
send the list to President Bush by September. In the past five closure rounds,
the commission has kept about 85 percent of the Pentagon's recommendations
intact. To add a base to the closure list takes seven votes, and to remove one
takes five. Under federal law, Bush, and later Congress, can either approve or
reject the entire list, but cannot make any changes to it.
Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)