THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, March 16, 1995               TAG: 9503160399
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Short :   45 lines

PENTAGON HAS STREAMLINED BASE-CLOSING PROCESS COMMUNITIES HAVE CUT THEIR REBOUND TIMES, TOO, OFFICIAL SAYS.

The Pentagon has nearly halved the time it used to take to close military bases, and communities are adapting more quickly to losing bases, the official in charge of closings said Wednesday.

``We're trying to do it faster and better,'' said Joshua Gotbaum, the assistant secretary of defense for economic security.

Gotbaum, arguing at a Pentagon briefing that ``there is life after base closure,'' introduced several officials who have been able to help their communities recover from losing military sites.

On average, it took 3.8 years to close a military facility in 1988, but 2.1 years for closures ordered in 1993. It took an average of 2.3 years for communities to draw up alternative plans to use the sites in 1988. Now, such plans are being drawn up in about a year, Gotbaum said.

The turnover has been improved by simplifying the regulations, offering annual planning grants of $300,000 to $400,000 for three to five years and offering the advice of an on-site ombudsman to deal with the federal government and the local communities, Gotbaum said.

That has allowed communities to begin planning to use the sites productively as soon as possible, the officials said.

Although about 790 civilian and 3,000 military jobs were lost in the closure of England Air Force Base near his city, Randolph said about 850 new civilian jobs have been created at the former site.

A truck-driver training center, a magnet elementary school, an aviation maintenance firm and two state universities are among the tenants using the former base, Randolph said.

Even though the military had a $70 million annual payroll, Randolph said the community came to realize that much of that money was going to base exchanges or out of state. So the economic impact of the base's loss was not as great as had been feared, Randolph said.

KEYWORDS: BASE CLOSINGS MILITARY BASES by CNB