Seize the opportunity Loring, Pease prove base closures need not be fatal

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http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/view/columns/1651905.shtml

Kennebec Journal Online
Thursday, May 26, 2005

Seize the opportunity Loring, Please prove base closures need not be fatal

Let's assume, as political reality suggests we should, that the Pentagon's base-closure-and-realignment list goes through as currently drafted. Where does Maine go from here?  We expect our political leaders to resist the proposed changes vigorously, as they are now doing, but it is also prudent to prepare for them to fail.

We could do worse than to study the history of other base closures in this region to see what we should be doing now to get set for a withdrawal from this state's long-running dependence upon a defense-based economy. Loring Air Force Base in Limestone and Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, N.H., were both put out of business, jeopardizing the host communities. Political and business leaders in both areas struggled mightily to restore the abandoned bases to economic health and in large measure succeeded.

There are differences in the current round of closings in Maine that will require imaginative new approaches, but we can learn from Loring and Pease. Although most of the focus of public attention has justifiably centered on the closing of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, a shipbuilding and refitting facility that has served the nation well for the better part of two centuries, it may not be the toughest hit Maine takes in the long run.

Worse may be the fate of Brunswick Naval Air Station, even though it did not make the Pentagon's ultimate hit list. The base is due to remain open, even though all of its P-3 aircraft and half of its military and civilian jobs will disappear. That means the economy of the mid-coast region of the state will be affected severely while the chances of recovery are severely limited by the conditions under which the base is "realigned." In Kittery, at least, the expectation is that once the shipyard is closed, the land on which it is situated will be made available to the state and the region for other uses.

Commercial developers are already hungrily eyeing the property for the potential riches of its location, location, location. But if, as seems likely, the military facility at Brunswick remains wholly in federal hands following its decimation, the state and the region are left with little or nothing to work with in bouncing back. It is going to take vigor and vision.

Perhaps the unkindest cut of all in this round of the Base Realignment and Closure process is the decision to close the Defense and Finance Accounting Center in Limestone. Even though the loss of 360 jobs there does not compare with the 4,500 jobs to be eliminated at Kittery or the 2,400 jobs to be moved out of Brunswick, it is an especially hard blow for Aroostook County. Limestone is where Loring  Air Force Base was located until it was shut down under the last BRAC program more than a decade ago. The independent Loring Development Authority, through a lot of hard work and more than a little friendly help from the federal government, managed to bring the region back to life.

A redevelopment enterprise that includes nearly two dozen commercial, educational and military components has resulted in the replacement of 1,100 civilian jobs lost when Loring was deactivated with nearly 1,400 jobs today. The military accounting service installed in 1995 as part of the recovery effort is now to be closed, dealing a kind of double whammy to a region that thought its suffering from national defense withdrawal was long over. The latest development is a stunning blow but certainly not a fatal one.

The Loring Development Authority and the people of the region have learned how to roll with the punches. They also have a message for communities to the south now facing what they did in 1994: In the future, do not allow all your eggs to get put into one basket again. "Instead of having a single employer, we now have 22," said Carl Flora, head of the authority. "So if any one of them closes, we'll be OK." That was before the Pentagon's latest hit list was unveiled, catching officials of the region completely by surprise." I never thought they would have closed us twice," Flora said. Still, considering what they have already accomplished, it is easy to believe Limestone will withstand this heavy blow as well.

The people of southern and mid-coast Maine would do well to get some good neighborly advice from folks to the north and west who went through the devastating experience of having the military rug pulled out from under them ... and survived. Jim Brunelle of Cape Elizabeth has commented on Maine issues for more than 40 years.

He can be reached at jbrune@maine.rr.com .
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)