THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 31, 1995 TAG: 9503310513
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
NASA Langley Research Center director Paul F. Holloway ended weeks of speculation by announcing on Thursday that he will remain in the post he has held since October 1991. Holloway, 56, said he will not take advantage of a NASA-wide employee buyout that concludes today (Friday) at 5 p.m.
``I've decided not to retire,'' Holloway said. ``We're going to go through too many changes. I'd just like to see it through. I'll stay on as long as I think I'm contributing something.''
Holloway said he made his decision in the aftermath of a visit last week by NASA headquarters officials.
The delegation, known as the Zero Base Review Team, collected Langley recommendations on restructuring the Hampton center.
Holloway and senior aides had prepared plans for a minimum 16 percent reduction in staff, equal to what is expected throughout the federal government. Senior management also prepared projections estimating the impact of a 40 percent cut in personnel at Langley, which employs about 5,200 civil servants and independent contractors on a budget of about $700 million.
``I wasn't sure I could hold up under the intensity of the (downsizing) effort,'' Holloway said. ``We got through the zero-base review and it went very well. I knew we did a good job. Something like that can have a sizeable impact on the future and on your thinking.''
As of Thursday afternoon, 289 Langley employees had filed buyout paperwork. That's slightly more than 10 percent of the center's civil service work force, and almost 40 more than Langley's original early-retirement goal of 250.
``This eases my mind,'' Holloway said.
``We're doing this better than the other (NASA) centers, in terms of getting our overhead down as rapidly as possible.''
Holloway added that neither he nor his senior aides yet know how a five-year, $5 billion cut in the NASA budget will affect Langley people and programs. He said that mid-May is the earliest that NASA administrator Daniel S. Goldin will make a final decision on the restructuring of the agency's 12 research and space centers.
KEYWORDS: NASA LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER by CNB