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OLF complicates
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June 2004 Cover Story
Going
to War
Shocked by the specter of military
base closures, officials begin battling a familiar enemy -- apathy
 By
Lisa H. Towle
For
North Carolina, it’s boots-on-the-ground time. A perfect storm created
by a recessionary economy, an unprecedented number of business closings
and the specter of an unparalleled round of military base realignments
and closures led the state to take stock.
One key strategy of the resulting long-term economic recovery plan has
been to come out fighting for a stronger defense presence. The reasons
are legion. As a recent study has shown, the military generates many
billions of dollars for North Carolina and its communities. Even so,
it’s been an underappreciated and underused economic engine.
Kel Landis, president and CEO of RBC Centura, is certainly a believer in
the potential of all things defense. “When it comes to the
military,” he says, “we have a sleeping giant in our state.” |
The deployment bags on top
of this Humvee at Fort Bragg were manufactured at Industrial
Opportunities Inc. in Cherokee, as were the nylon straps suspending the
platform |
First Army trains soldiers
from the N.C. National Guard 30th Infantry Brigade at Fort Bragg in
military operations in an urban terrair prior to their Iraq deployment |
Military installations, some
internationally known, have long been a major presence in the eastern third of
North Carolina. With the six bases have come jobs and dollars tied both directly
and indirectly to their operations. However, the remaining two-thirds of North
Carolina, while home to units of the National Guard and Reserves, have not
heavily invested itself in the armed forces. Consequently, it has not realized
the spin-off of dollars that follow defense-related industries. Instead, energy,
time and money historically has swirled more around textiles, tobacco and
manufacturing. But the dynamics have shifted in a big way, given the forever
decreased fortunes of those traditional industries and the jump in military
spending, triggered by terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001 and
escalated since by the waging of simultaneous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Speaking at the 62nd Annual Meeting of NCCBI on March 17, Lt. Gov. Beverly
Perdue acknowledged that while, “This (defense) is a huge industry in North
Carolina historically, we’ve never focused on its potential for gain.” Gov.
Mike Easley and Perdue are leading a bipartisan charge to remedy that situation.
The goal is twofold: Enhance North Carolina’s reputation as a military
friendly state and, as Perdue puts it, “make procurement in North Carolina a
household word.” This means convincing all economic sectors of the value of
not just supporting a strong military presence in the state but determinedly and
energetically pursuing defense-related contracts. Tactics for achieving this
goal include offering some eye-popping numbers and bolstering competitive spirit
by, among other things, tapping into state pride.
Quantifying the economic importance of the military to the Tar Heel state was a
task given by the N.C. Advisory Commission on Military Affairs to East Carolina
University Regional Development Services. The North Carolina Statewide Military
Impact Study, done in cooperation with Regional Economic Models Inc. and the
NCSU Economic Development Partnership, was released in the first quarter of
2004. Among the key findings:
 The contributions of all aspects of the
military dollars spent — military operations and employment, industrial
contracts, retirees and veterans — is $18 billion, or more than seven percent
of the gross state product.
The employment of more than 333,000
persons is linked in one way or another to defense.
Nearly 84,000 jobs are stimulated by
the economic activity associated with military spending in various ways.
As impressive as those numbers are (very few segments of the economy can account
for such a high percentage of the GSP), it is important to keep them in
perspective. For instance, while North Carolina has the third largest active
duty military population in the U.S., after California and Texas, only one
percent of U.S. Department of Defense contract spending happens here. In 2002,
the latest year for which figures were available, businesses spread across 85 of
the state’s 100 counties realized $1.52 billion in defense-related activity.
In contrast, there’s Arizona, another state with a sizeable military presence.
During the same period it received more than $6 billion in defense work.
California took the top spot, raking in $23 billion in DOD contracts.
Procurement
“The federal government is the largest customer in the world. Its operations
related to defense need everything from rocket parts to janitorial services. Its
market potential is huge,” says Scott Daugherty, executive director of North
Carolina’s Small Business and Technology Development Center. Since 1986 the
SBTDC has run a government procurement program known as PTAC (Procurement
Technical Assistance Center). It is designed to help businesses statewide
navigate this diverse market.
Starting about two years ago, PTAC, whose stated mission is to “create and
retain jobs, foster competition and lower costs for the government, and help to
sustain our armed forces’ readiness,” began ramping up its efforts. It has
added counselors, hosted more workshops and seminars, and begun publishing a
quarterly newsletter about marketing and selling goods and services to the
government. The results of the extra effort have been tangible and, says Gene
Byrd, existing industry services manager at the state Department of Commerce,
helped blast holes in some common misperceptions. Namely, it’s geographic
proximity to military bases that counts when it comes to winning DOD contracts,
and there’s undue bureaucracy and politics involved with work for the
government.
Industrial Opportunities Inc. is located in Cherokee County, about as far away
as one can get from the military installations of Eastern North Carolina and
still be in the state. Commercial products, military goods and vocational
training are the three distinct aspects of the business. Headquartered in
Andrews, it employs nearly 230 people, more than half of whom have disabilities.
Tom O’Brien, the CEO of IOI, explains that 55 percent of Industrial
Opportunities’ business is now tied to military contracts. One such contract
was for boot liners. Another, completed last January, required the manufacture
of 11,371 A-22 cargo bags. In February came a reorder for Tyvec aprons for the
U.S. Navy, 48,000 of them. The most recent contract, awarded in March, calls for
a minimum of 180,000 and a maximum of 300,000 duffle bags for the U.S. Army over
the next 12 months. The projected payroll is $1.7 million.
“Our philosophy and focus has been to look for things with shorter production
cycles, primarily in the areas of medicine, defense, recreation and automotives.
The military’s needs are a good fit for what we do. So much so that we’re at
capacity and having to turn work down,” says O’Brien, who also serves as
chair of Cherokee County’s Economic Development Commission.
Getting Smart
Molly Broad, president of the University of North Carolina, is, like O’Brien,
looking to further a mutually beneficial relationship with the defense
department. Recently, she told Russ Lea, her vice president for Research and
Sponsored Programs, “you better wake up every morning thinking of the DOD.”
He does.
This is not a strange thing for a university system, insists Lea, who notes that
between World War I and the Korean Conflict institutions of higher learning
played a key role in national defense. Likewise, schools were heavily involved
in the first moon launch and remain active in space exploration programs. In the
recent past, says Lea, UNC’s schools have worked with the Defense Department
“in the standard contracting grant arena. That is, we’ve investigated
problems or lines of inquiry and gotten $45 million from that across the system.
What the money hasn’t been used for is applied science, and the military needs
those services also. We now want the university as a whole and all its partners
to commit a portion of R&D capacity to assist our fighting forces with
things such as signal processing, protective clothing and new vaccines.”
The move from inquiry to results-based science and technology won’t be for
everybody, acknowledges Lea. But there are plenty of academics, who, out of deep
personal concern about things such as terrorism or the needs of first
responders, will gladly put their knowledge to practical use. And, he adds,
remember that “two-thirds of R&D money flowing through any university
system in this country, not just UNC, is from the federal government. With the
help of federal monies we have built a huge scientific capacity in this state.
Now we have a military that’s demanding a component of that enterprise.
That’s valid.”
The knowledge base to which Lea refers played a significant role in the decision
to relocate General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products to Charlotte from
Burlington, Vermont, last November. A unit of General Dynamics Corp.
specializing in defense products (“detection, protection and lethality”) for
all branches of the U.S. Department of Defense and the ministries of defense of
more than 30 allied nations, GDATP had considered nine U.S. cities for its
headquarters. Though Charlotte had floated to near the top of the list, the
state’s incentives “were so weak they almost proved to be a deal breaker for
us,” says John Suttle, a company spokesman. What helped save the deal was the
engineering school at UNC Charlotte. “What they specialize in is the expertise
we need; we anticipate a very nice and profitable relationship with them,”
adds Suttle, whose first career was in the Army.
By the time it’s fully staffed, perhaps as early as this fall, GDATP will
employ some 400 people, more than half of them in the manufacturing facility. A
job they will have to get to right away is fulfillment of a $17 million
follow-on order from the U.S. Army for the production of 60 enhanced-capability
reactive armor vehicle sets for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Work is to be
completed by July 2005.
Mecklenburg County has estimated the direct economic impact of General Dynamics
Armament and Technical Products will be in the neighborhood of $760 million a
year. It’s anticipating $684,000 in taxes for the city of Charlotte and
approximately $1.1 million in taxes for the county.
“Obviously, the providing of good jobs, direct and indirect, is a very
important part of having a strong military presence in North Carolina,” says
Ann Lichtner, director of intergovernmental relations in the Office of the
Governor. But, she cautions, that’s just one piece of a whole: “Military
people are good neighbors, too.” In fact, lots of military personnel choose to
retire in North Carolina; their contribution to the gross state product is $1.51
billion, according to the Statewide Military Impact Study.
As of 2001, the state ranked second nationally in Marine retirees, fifth in
Coast Guard retirees, sixth in Army retirees and 10th in Air Force retirees.
Many of these people go on to second careers, as did Bruce Gumbar, a former
Marine Corps colonel now working as Onslow County’s economic development
director. Others, such as Stewart Rumley, once of the Coast Guard, dedicate
themselves to volunteer interests. Rumley is now in his fifth term as mayor of
Washington and also serves as president of the N.C. League of Municipalities.
BRAC
It’s a potent combination, this mix of jobs, revenue, ready workforce and
civic-minded citizenry. No wonder then that counties that are home to military
installations want most especially to keep them. This is why the cyclical round
of base realignment and closure actions (BRACs) nationwide are always a source
of hand-wringing and headaches. But the 2002 Defense Authorization Act, which
included the authority to conduct an additional round of BRACs beginning in
2005, is causing more consternation than usual due to its sweeping nature.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has made it clear that financing what’s
envisioned as the swifter, stronger, more nimble fighting forces of tomorrow
means major cuts in today’s programs. He has used the words
“transformation” and “bold” to frame BRAC ’05, and though he’s
projected a 23 percent overcapacity of infrastructure, he has repeatedly said
that does not automatically convert into closing 23 percent of the bases.
Still, the projected cuts for this BRAC process will be equal to the total of
the previous four BRAC rounds. Five of North Carolina’s military bases —
Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in Onslow County, Cherry Point Marine Corps Air
Station in Craven County, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Wayne County, and
Pope Air Force Base and the Army’s Fort Bragg in Cumberland County — are in
play. Gov. Easley has appointed Lt. Gov. Perdue, who provided leadership during
the previous BRAC, to align the state’s resources to protect and, ideally,
grow North Carolina’s bases. She and Leigh Harvey McNairy, who joined her
staff as military affairs liaison last September, are working with national,
state and local delegations to make the case as to why the state is “the most
military friendly state in the Union” and its installations best equipped to
help DOD fulfill its mission.
There has been some opinion expressed on both sides of the congressional aisle
that this round of base closings comes at a bad time. That doesn’t mean a BRAC
won’t happen; it just means it could be delayed. Whenever it occurs, in 2005
or in subsequent years, discerning the thinking of the BRAC Commission and then
Congress, which votes simply yea or nay on the entire recommendation of the
defense secretary relative to realignments and closures (no amendments or other
changes allowed), will be akin to reading tea leaves. “All we can do,” says
McNairy, “is be as efficient and effective as possible, and remember that the
process is fluid and requires constant vigilance on the part of North
Carolina.”
Good Neighbors
In February, while at Fort Bragg for a “military summit,” McNairy explained
to the assembled military and civilian leaders the BRAC ’05 process and what
North Carolina had done and would be doing to address it. One example she
offered was that of training, essential to the military’s ability to carry out
its mission. In turn, air quality is an important component of training. She
elaborated: “Whether flying an F-18 or a C-141, the military needs to be able
to operate aircraft in the region without concern that exhaust may limit
training days. This occurs in other parts of the country, especially in the
summer.”
“We must avoid becoming a non-attainment area, where if the particular levels
reach a certain point, all aircraft are grounded. We do not have that
problem in Eastern North Carolina. This is an asset. The fact that the North
Carolina power companies negotiated a deal with Gov. Easley to install scrubbers
on all coal-fired plants is important to our ongoing air quality. This type of
foresight and cooperation is not lost on the planners in the Pentagon.”
Nor, it is hoped, are other good neighbor actions such as protecting military
flight patterns, quick out-loading at state ports, water quality and wetlands
assistance from the state, and help with spousal employment and tuition issues.
“There’s no getting around this. We know that other states are working hard
as well, and spending megabucks to address the BRAC issue. We want to face BRAC
in a responsible manner, get out ahead of it and do everything within our power
to be as attractive as possible to the BRAC Commission,” says Troy Pate,
co-chair of the Advisory Commission on Military Affairs
Local support is critical as the battle for the bases heats up. Ever present and
powerful citizen armies exist in each military host community, ready to protect
and assist their installations. Comprised of business interests, civic and
elected leaders, educators and concerned individuals, these groups build on
relationships that have existed for decades and they pray that BRAC will be
kind.
Wayne County, home to Seymour Johnson AFB, considers defense its No. 1 industry
because of the overall economic impact of the base, says Joanna Thompson,
president and COO of the Wayne County Economic Development Commission. “It’s
so important that ‘support Seymour Johnson Air Force Base’ is always
included in our written yearly priorities,” she says. The Seymour Support
Council works to keep the base front and center. Chaired by Jimmie Edmundson,
senior vice president and city/area executive for BB&T in Goldsboro, the
council’s “sole purpose is to promote a positive relationship between the
community and Seymour Johnson.”
It is comprised of nearly eight dozen members, each of whom pays $300 in annual
dues. The monies fund everything from quarterly cash awards for airmen and Air
Force family recognition banquets to trips to college football games and
refreshments for personnel waiting for hours on end to deploy. Upon arriving in
Goldsboro, every commander at the base is partnered with a Support Council
member who serves as their community resource person for as long as their tour
of duty in North Carolina lasts.
“We also take on issues that could have a positive or negative influence on
the base,” says Edmundson. He’s referring to matters such as protecting
bases from residential encroachment. It’s a national issue and of concern to
the Department of Defense, which worries that urbanization will affect not just
space for training but the health and safety of the civilian population.
Proving ‘Jointness’
It is the desire of the Defense Department that solutions to such a problem come
as a result of “jointness.” One aspect of jointness is the willingness of
civilians and the military to work together toward a shared goal. In this, North
Carolina has been ahead of the curve, and a group called ACT, Allies for Cherry
Point’s Tomorrow, has brought that fact to the attention of the director of
BRAC. Originally formed in the 1990s to advocate for the Marine Corps Air
Station and Naval Air Depot at Cherry Point during a BRAC round, ACT is made up
of leaders from Craven, Carteret, Pamlico and Jones counties and led by Jimmy
Sanders, a Havelock city commissioner. Craven County, along with Carteret
County, Havelock, the town of Emerald Isle, the town of Bogue, and the town of
Atlantic have agreed to undertake a joint land use study in cooperation with
Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.
In a letter to the Pentagon, Sanders asked for clarification of BRAC criteria
and for more decision weight to be placed on Cherry Point’s relatively low
incidence of encroachment problems. “Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and
NADEP both enjoy widespread support and benefit from a well-developed and
accessible infrastructure that does not suffer from base encroachment issues,”
he wrote.
Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base, which share the largest military geographic
region in the country, created the first joint Army-Air Force land use study in
the nation. The Fort Bragg/Pope AFB Regional Land Use Advisory Commission then
joined with 19 local governments spread across seven counties that surround
Bragg and Pope in the Sandhills region to form a Regional Land Use Advisory
Commission. With the guidance of the southeast regional office of the N.C.
Department of Commerce’s Division of Community Assistance, a decade-old joint
land use plan was updated, taking into account all needs and conditions — high
noise zones and multi-use recreational trails, protection of ecosystems and
rural lands, to name a few. Several of their recommendations require action by
the General Assembly. Since May of 2003 when the study was published, 15 of the
19 local governments have signed on.
Last February, Onslow County announced more jointness. It had signed a unique
service agreement with Camp Lejeune that expands the county’s water and sewer
capacity using base resources. Further, the Onslow County Water and Sewer
Authority and Lejeune agreed in principle to explore a long-term partnership
that could potentially result in the turnover of operations of the base’s
water and wastewater utility system to ONWASA. Such an arrangement would be the
first of its kind between a military installation and local government authority
in the nation, and will require special legislation to support.
Another joint venture, though of an entirely different ilk, is known as Project
Care (Community Action Readiness Effort). Developed by the Jacksonville-Onslow
Chamber of Commerce, the city of Jacksonville, Onslow County, Camp Lejeune and
the Marine Corps Air Station at New River, the program, initially created for
periods of mass deployments, has three parts: assistance to the families of
deployed military; assistance to businesses which may face challenges due to
loss of customers; assistance for community/military needs on an ongoing basis.
Project Care’s promise of help with auto repairs and plumbing problems,
reduced rent and low cost childcare, discounted meals at area restaurants and a
stronger support system for military dependents, including frequent updates on
spouse locations and unit status, have helped keep families in the area during
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “It’s been a marked change (from 1991 and
the Persian Gulf War when a mass departure of Marine and Navy families dealt a
severe blow to the local economy). The majority of our businesses have not been
adversely affected this time because most of our families have stayed,” says
Mona Padrick, president of the Jacksonville-Onslow Chamber of Commerce. Better
yet, she adds, was a comment from a top officer at Came Lejeune. “He told me
he didn’t have to send a single Marine home (from a war zone), that there was
no panic among his men because they felt their families were being looked
after.”
Earlier this year, Fort Bragg, one of the largest and busiest military complexes
in the world, won the Army Times Best Post Award, a salute to the Army
installation with superior quality of life. To show support for Bragg and its
adjacent sister installation, Pope AFB, and to foster positive relationships
between the business and military communities, the 48-year-old Military Affairs
Council of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce hosts breakfasts for the
bases’ commanders, organizes golf tournaments, sponsors receptions to pay
tribute to soldiers and airman returning from long deployments, arranges for
meetings of business, political and military leaders, even coordinates quarterly
family fun days. Now comes an entirely new kind of community building tool:
Operation Match Force, which matches local businesses to government contracts
and job seekers to local jobs is, so far as the Fayetteville Chamber knows,
unique in the state, perhaps the country (see story, page 38).
Business Signs Up
Each of these developments excites RBC Centura’s Kel Landis, who likes to say
that “action beats inaction every time,” and who freely admits using his
office and the influence of the N.C. Bankers Association to “pound the table
for the military.” He was a mover behind NCBA’s Operation ROTC (reach out to
communities; reach out to children), an initiative in 2003 that provided free
financial counseling information to individuals, families and businesses
impacted by the deployment to Iraq; $100,000 for extended daycare for families
through the Family Service Support Centers on North Carolina bases; and more
than $20,000 to the National Guard to assist individuals and families in
distress. On Feb. 21, more than 8,000 military personnel attended Military
Appreciation Day hosted by his bank at the RBC Center in Raleigh. His next idea,
still in need of an underwriter, is a statewide billboard advertising campaign
in which creative supplied by the bank would build awareness and support of the
military.
Jeff Corbett, vice president of Progress Energy’s eastern region, says the
bases are some of Progress Energy’s largest customers. Any reversal of their
fortunes means a reversal for the energy company. But there’s also the bigger
picture. By supporting the work of groups like Allies for Cherry Point’s
Tomorrow, for instance, Progress Energy sends the message that, “there’s a
tremendous opportunity here to step up and make a name for ourselves in the
defense industry. If we do that we could realize dividends for decades to
come.”
State Sen. Tony Rand (D-Cumberland) agrees: “Our collective ship will rise or
fall to a big degree on how we meet this challenge and opportunity before us.”
Fayetteville
Matches Soldiers, Local Jobs
A
new web site that matches employment requests of soldiers and their spouses with
Fayetteville area businesses in turn will enable business owners to scout for
contract and supply needs of Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base.
The site, www.matchforce.org, was
launched April 22. Dubbed “Operation Match Force,” it is the product of
collaboration between the military, the Cumberland County Business Council and
the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.
According to Chamber President Bill Martin, the city of Fayetteville went
through a self-analysis process three years ago called “Greater Fayetteville
Futures” and decided it needed to do a better job of leveraging the military.
A 30-member steering committee of business and military leaders worked together
to plan the web site and other initiatives. “We think it’s a huge
opportunity. There’s a tremendous resource out there,” Martin says.
He adds that about 8,000 soldiers leave the military annually. “They’re
highly skilled and educated — 99.25 percent of them have at least a high
school education, which is much higher than the workforce as a whole.”
Soldiers are aware of the site when they first arrive at Bragg and Pope for
in-processing. Their spouses can input information on their education, training,
experience and skills, and that data will be matched with local companies when
openings are posted. Soldiers who are leaving the military and wish to stay in
the community can do likewise.
In addition, the site will match local businesses with contracts that are
available at Bragg and Pope, plus other government contracts as well, Martin
says. Interested parties will fill out a business profile and put in key words
on products and service, which will be matched with information about contracts.
“Anytime there is a contract or requirement posted by the military, we will
notify by email the companies that it matches with,” Martin says. “The
companies don’t have to get on the site every day to search for something.”
Soldiers with IMPACT credit cards, which are used to purchase supplies, goods
and services for the military, can also input their needs. Local companies that
can fill the order will be notified of the request and can bid for the jobs, and
soldiers will also see a list of the companies that can help them. “For the
IMPACT card holder, this could be their new yellow pages, where they could
actually input their requirements and get a price back and consummate a deal
online,” Martin says.
Advanced Internet Technologies Inc. of Fayetteville set up the site, and the
Cumberland County Business Council is handling the administration of it, Martin
says. For now, the site will be available only to businesses in Cumberland
County, he adds. “This is a beta test, you might say. But certainly, it has
implications statewide or across the country for other communities,” Martin
says.
To further reach out to the military, the chamber also will hire a consultant to
look at the needs of the military in the future and the capabilities of local
companies to meet those needs and determine whether there are gaps that must be
filled, Martin adds. “We think there’s an opportunity for Bragg and Pope to
grow. We know there will be 100 bases targeted to close, and functions have to
go somewhere. How do we identify the functions?” -- Heidi Russell Rafferty
National
Guard and Reserves Also Impact the Economy
By
regularly training with members of the active-duty military, the National Guard
and U.S. Army Reserve ensure that all three work as an integrated team, hence
providing a flexible and complementary force that can expand and contract to
meet specific needs. In a time of war, when demand for troops is huge and
growing, the importance of this force to the national defense plan is strikingly
clear.
At last count, some 5,400 of North Carolina’s so-called “weekend warriors”
— for the fact that in peace time they are expected to serve one weekend a
month and two weeks in the summer — had left their civilian jobs behind for
deployment to Afghanistan or to occupy Iraq. In the past year, that number has
surpassed 6,000.
What isn’t so obvious is how much these citizen soldiers and airmen contribute
to the economy year in and year out. According to the National Guard, more than
11,700 men and women work for the Guard in North Carolina; nearly 100 cities and
towns from Ahoskie to Zebulon host Guard units. Some of this number, roughly
1,400, are full-time employees of the Army or Air Guard and paid by the federal
government. A much smaller full-time component, 100 or so, are civilians whose
paychecks come from the state.
In normal (read non-war) times, the impact of the pay for Guard service
statewide, both full-time and part-time, is pronounced — $352 million
annually. That includes the standard industry multiplier effect of 1.7. -- Lisa
H. Towle
OLF
Complicates State's Military Support
For
defense industry boosters, environmentalists and property owners in eastern
North Carolina, OLF has become a four-letter word, though for very different
reasons.
Last September, the U.S. Navy announced its intention to purchase 30,000 acres
in rural Washington and Beaufort counties in order to build what’s known as an
outlying landing field. The purpose of the OLF is to allow F/A-18 Super Hornets
to practice carrier landings between its two home bases, one at Virginia’s
Oceana Naval Air Station and the other at North Carolina’s Cherry Point Marine
Corps Air Station.
The proposed OLF site, located near Plymouth, would be built on agricultural
land and wetlands. It would also come within a few miles of a national wildlife
refuge that is a winter home to tens of thousands of birds, thus posing the risk
of bird-aircraft collisions. In short order, a “NO OLF” coalition was
formed. The group, comprised of landowners and community leaders in the affected
area as well as environmentalists, openly questioned the Navy’s methodology
for determining the impact of the project and accused it of failing to fully
explore alternative sites.
And those were just the opening salvos. The coalition then pushed for the
General Assembly to meet in special session to amend or repeal a 1907 law that
in essence gave away North Carolina’s say in matters of jurisdiction when the
federal government acquires land in the state. State Sens. Tony Rand
(D-Cumberland) and Scott Thomas (D-Craven), both of whom represent districts
with a prominent military presence, have been vocal in their opposition to such
a session.
Sensitive to anything that could tarnish the state’s military friendly
reputation, they have reminded people Down East of the billions of defense
dollars that have pumped up area economies over the years; they’ve reassured
those with an interest in protecting local military installations — groups
such as Allies for Cherry Point’s Tomorrow — that the initial $2 million
allocated by the General Assembly to fight the upcoming round of base
realignments and closures is indeed available; and they’ve urged fellow
legislators to not rush into special session but instead get more information on
the OLF issue by, for instance, consulting with the governor’s Advisory
Commission on Military Affairs.
Meanwhile, Marc Basnight (D-Dare), Senate president pro tem, floated the idea of
an alternate landing site for the Super Hornets: an offshore platform in the
Atlantic or perhaps the Pamlico Sound. Not only would such a platform improve
pilot safety by reducing the risk of costly bird collisions, he said, it would
provide a more realistic practice area.
In late March, Gov. Mike Easley announced the formation of a group tasked with
studying the OLF issue for 60 days. A statement from the governor’s office
about the effort read in part, “Easley and the Navy agreed to work together to
ensure the best possible outcome for local communities, the state and the
country.” Meanwhile, the Navy continued to insist that plans would proceed as
scheduled with the $186 million project.
On April 20, federal judge Terence Boyle issued a temporary injunction against
the OLF. In a 19-page ruling, Boyle, of the U.S. District Court, wrote that
“the public will suffer greater harm from the construction of an outlying
landing field without full consideration of the potential environmental impact
and consequences by the Navy, than by any delay that would be caused by a
preliminary injunction.” The Navy has the option of asking the 4th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the injunction. It’s anticipated that a
full hearing on multiple lawsuits brought by environmental groups and Washington
and Beaufort counties will be scheduled later this summer or in the fall. -- Lisa
H. Towle
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