North Hanover Township officials pay close attention to Fort Dix and McGuire AFB housing projects.
By: Eve Collins
NORTH HANOVER Township officials said they will closely watch the projects taking place on Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force bases to improve and expand housing occupied by members of the military and their families.
Mayor John Kocubinski said that the committee members had to make sure issues including the impact on federal funding to schools and public safety were being addressed. "We can’t inform the residents without an update," he said.
The Township Committee met with officials from the two bases Aug. 7. The governing body had asked for an update to the projects and all officials agreed to monthly meetings for subsequent updates.
Base officials told the committee that the project is still in the initial stages. The housing project at the McGuire and Dix bases involves construction of, or improvements to 2,588 units. Officials said they hope all improvements will be done by 2010.
The project includes the demolition of 252 units in the Falcon Courts East community in North Hanover. Those will be replaced with 292 units in the Falcon Courts North community and other areas of McGuire and Dix.
The replacement of 484 units also will take place on Fort Dix, officials said.
Local officials have been concerned how the project will affect federal impact aid to school districts and about what, if any local services should be provided to the military housing units.
The proposal is part of an initiative that was enacted as part of the 1996 Defense Authorization Act, meant to improve military housing through private sector resources.
Bill Leonard of the Housing Privatization Office at McGuire Air Force Base said officials hope to issue bids from developers in April 2004, award a project in April 2005, and begin work in August 2005.
Major renovations are proposed for 1,200 units, including the replacement of electrical and plumbing systems and building additions onto the homes.
Mr. Leonard said many of the units have never been renovated since they were built between 1959 and 1961, and have older kitchens and lack the electrical services that are needed today.
"We keep the units up as well as we can, but we can’t fix them up fast enough," he said. In the last decade, officials have fixed 320 units. At that rate, the others would not be fixed for another 25 years, Mr. Leonard said.
Minor improvements also are proposed for 453 units that already have had major renovations.
Although there have been other privatization projects throughout the nation, the one here is the largest to date and is the first to involve both Army and Air Force housing, Mr. Leonard told township officials.
Privatization efforts have been finished and so far have been successful on Lackland and Dyess bases, both in Texas; and on Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, Mr. Leonard said. Construction is beginning for a privatization effort on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, he said.
"Everybody seems to like privatized housing," Mr. Leonard said of the other projects. "There are always growing pains, but we haven’t had any major problems or horror stories."
The developer that is awarded the bid will finance, plan, design and construct and make improvements to the units. That developer will own and operate the housing for 50 years. Essentially, Mr. Leonard said, the developer will be the landlord to families living in the housing.
What concerns local officials in North Hanover is that if less than 95 percent of the privatized military housing is occupied, the developer can opt to rent units to non-military families. And if those families include school-age children, officials fear that federal impact aid to the school districts that educate those children could be adversely affected.
Richard Carson, Superintendent of the North Hanover School District, attended the meeting and said other bases that have undergone privatization projects have not experienced problems where the schools are concerned.
"I feel confident with what has transpired over the years, that McGuire and the schools will be protected as far as impact aid," Dr. Carson said.
The North Hanover and Northern Burlington County Regional school districts educate the children from military families that live on McGuire and Dix. Unlike other school officials, administrators in those districts have to lobby each year for federal funding to educate those children.
Since 1951, the federal government has allocated impact aid annually to schools that serve military families. State aid, combined with revenue from local taxes, make up the difference in cost of educating students whose parents are taxpayers.
Mr. Leonard told local officials last week that it would be unlikely that non-military families would be placed in the units because requests by members of the military for housing on the bases has been steady and should remain so.
Because the land will be leased to the developer, township officials have the opportunity to levy property taxes. The developer would be responsible for paying those taxes, and as officials pointed out, could in turn demand services such as police patrols, street lights, and trash pickup.
Mr. Leonard explained that it would be up to township officials and the developer to decide what, if any, taxes would be levied on the areas.
Mayor Kocubinski said the township’s largest cost is for public safety. The Police Department is small, he said, and may not be able to handle incidents that could arise with so many new units. "We have to make sure North Hanover is protected," he said.