THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 19, 1994 TAG: 9410190453
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 119 lines
Hampton Roads localities may not cooperate on many issues, but 15 communities are pooling resources to protect the region's military installations during the 1995 round of base-closure proceedings.
The effort, coordinated by the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, has amassed a $500,000 budget so far, hired two consultants based in Washington, D.C., and produced a 15-minute informational video.
``Unlike in '93 and '91, we want to get way out ahead,'' said Arthur Collins, executive director of the planning district commission. ``We want to be ready to defend ourselves six months before we might need to do it. And we want to be well-organized and keep everybody informed.''
Another round of base closures is scheduled for next year. The federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission will make recommendations based on lists to be submitted by the military in January.
The BRAC is an independent panel appointed by the president that decides should be shut as the defense forces shrink. Its recommendations must what military installations be accepted or rejected as a whole by Congress and the president, so it is nearly impossible for a facility to save itself with political pressure once it is targeted.
In 1993, the commission called for the closure of the Naval Aviation Depot in Norfolk and the Naval Electronics Facilities Command in Portsmouth, and moved the Naval Undersea Warfare Center from Suffolk to Rhode Island.
It also served warning that such local institutions as the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth and the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach were not secure from future cuts.
``One of the things we've tried to emphasize,'' Collins said, ``is the synergy, that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.''
For example, he said, when Army troops from Fort Eustis deploy, they depend on the Air Force Base at Langley.
``We want to stress, too, the great savings that are achieved because all these facilities are here,'' he said.
The joint effort, begun last spring, includes two levels of committees:
A policy-setting panel known as Tier 1. It includes Virginia's two U.S. senators, Democrat Charles S. Robb and Republican John W. Warner; U.S. Reps. Owen B. Pickett, D-2nd District; Norman Sisisky, D-4th; Herbert H. Bateman, R-1st, and Robert C. Scott, D-3rd; the mayors of each city with a military base; and Robert Skunda, Virginia secretary of commerce and trade.
A work group known as Tier 2 that consists of staff representatives from each local government, the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and several Army and Navy retirees.
Funding includes $250,000 appropriated by the General Assembly, $100,000 from the planning district commission and $150,000 pooled from 15 area communities on a population-based formula.
``Even local governments that don't have any military installations are participating: Franklin, Southampton County and Isle of Wight'' because of the potential regional impact of base closings, Collins said.
Collins said the effort also cuts across different layers of government and political affiliations.
``This is a cooperative arrangement on the state, federal and local levels, and it's bipartisan,'' he said. ``Everybody is hanging together on this one.''
The group is preparing its research as if BRAC would recommend realignment or closure for every military installation in Hampton Roads, Collins said.
The region's actual strategy will be fine tuned after each branch of the military makes its recommendations to the Department of Defense in early January, he said.
To help prepare its case, the region has hired consultants Barry Steinberg, who advised Charleston, S.C., during the last round of cuts, and George Schlossberg of Washington, D.C.
And, today the group will unveil a short informational video that explains the importance of the military to Hampton Roads, the BRAC process and the cooperative regional response, Collins said.
The video will be made available to localities to broadcast on government-sponsored television stations. The business community also may obtain the video through the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, Collins said.
Collins noted that most of the area's congressmen already have committees working on the BRAC process.
``Those will continue to go on, but everybody also is working together,'' he said.
City governments also are boning up on BRAC.
On Tuesday, the Portsmouth City Council visited the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
Afterward, Steve Herbert, assistant director of the city's economic development department, said the shipyard's chief rival in the base closing process would be the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which is in Kittery, Maine, a suburb of Portsmouth, N.H.
However, it was unclear what, if any, base-closure strategy the council may have discussed with local shipyard officials.
The Portsmouth council went into closed session for about 1 1/2 hours while most members visited the shipyard.
But upon returning from the trip, Mayor Gloria O. Webb first said the visit was just to get to know Capt. William R. Klemm, the shipyard's new commander. She also said it was not for purposes related to BRAC.
Webb said the closed segment of the council session was justified by national security, even though that reason was not enumerated in the council's resolution and there is no provision in state law to close council procedures for national security matters.
A few minutes later, Webb added that the council did talk about possible property acquisition.
Later, Councilman Cameron Pitts said one purpose of the visit was to discuss possible public access to the shipyard's Trophy Park, the site of many change-of-command ceremonies.
The park, on 35 acres of the shipyard's original grounds, also is a repository of weaponry from the Revolution through World War II.
``There were a few things they were very uncomfortable with in regards to security of the yard,'' Pitts said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
``We want to be ready to defend ourselves six months before we might
need to.''
Arthur Collins, executive director of Hampton Roads Plannihng
District Commission
KEYWORDS: HAMPTON ROADS PLANNING DISTRICT COMMISSION MILITARY BASES
BASE REALIGNMENT AND CLOSURE COMMISSION
by CNB