Local officials said they are not concerned that the Base Realignment and Closure report will result in recommendations to close any area bases.
By: Scott Morgan
By the beginning of next week, the U.S. military will know the answer to a question that has kept the armed services’ collective breath held for two years where and how the Department of Defense will be scaled down.
In April 2003, the DOD announced it would begin a study aimed at downsizing the U.S. military budget by 25 percent. According to the DOD, "all military installations within the United States and its territories will be examined as part of this process."
The process itself, known as Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, seeks ways to cut costs in the defense budget by cutting equipment or personnel, changing the nature and function of bases or even shutting bases down.
A report, written by the federal BRAC Commission, is due no later than Monday, though it may come as early as Friday. This is the third round of BRAC, the first occurring in 1988 (when the U.S. Army shut down basic training operations at Fort Dix) and the second in 1995 (when the DOD announced it would close McGuire Air Force Base). Like every base and every piece of equipment in the American military, the fates of Fort Dix, McGuire and Lakehurst Naval Air Station hang in the balance.
Though local officials said they are not concerned that the BRAC report will result in recommendations to close any of the bases, especially in the wake of increased operations at the bases and a growing role in combat operations in the Middle East there, there is a looming precedent causing some to wait before they exhale.
In 1995, McGuire was slated to close, but was saved by political lobbying at the expense of Plattsburgh Air Force Base in upstate New York. Though Plattsburgh recovered and indeed is thriving under sweeping commercial renovations on the old airbase site the impact of a base closure here could have disastrous effects, primarily on local schools.
If there is one school district that relies on a military presence, it is North Hanover, which houses four of its five schools on the McGuire grounds. This arrangement qualifies the school for annual federal impact aid, money from the federal government used to offset the cost of operating schools made up largely of military hence transient children. In North Hanover, impact aid ($6 million annually) comprises a full third of the district’s budget.
For Superintendent Richard Carson, it would be a daunting problem. But contrary to what some might fear, the absence of McGuire would not necessarily leave residents with $6 million hole to fill.
"A lot of factors come into play here," Dr. Carson said Monday.
If the DOD were to close any of the bases, he said, the impact on the school system would be gauged by what happens with the land. If the land stayed federal property, the district would continue getting monetary help; if it were turned into municipal property and developed as a residential community, the schools would still be needed, he said. In that case, he said, tax money could be raised from new residents to offset cost. Overall, Dr. Carson said, he is not worried yet.
"A week from now," he said, "I could be very worried."
In Ocean County, Fort Dix comprises 20 of Plumsted Township’s 40-square-acre area, and most of that land is an old artillery range. What that would mean in the immediate sense is costly environmental cleanup, if the Army were to sell the property to the township.
For Gerald Woehr, superintendent of the township school district, this is a good thing. Given the millions of dollars it would take to clean up the range, he said, it is unlikely that the Army would be quick to want to sell it. If the land stays federal, regardless of its use, Dr. Woehr said, the school district would continue to receive the $500,000-$750,000 it gets in federal impact aid each year.
"It doesn’t have to be active military," he said. "There’s not an effect (on us) as long as it remains federal property. We’re in pretty good shape regardless of how it goes."
The general sentiment among local officials is one of "wait and see." Concern, in fact, is fairly low, judging by some of the sentiments regarding BRAC, and that lack of concern is grounded firmly in a belief that all three bases which comprise a contiguous, 60-square-mile land mass in Burlington and Ocean counties are just too valuable.
After Sept. 11, Fort Dix became the East Coast’s main deployment center for reserve troops and, to date, has processed more than 60,000 troops to fight in the global campaign against terrorism. Last September, McGuire opened its $17 million runway designed to transport troops processed through Fort Dix, upping the shared-services ante and binding the bases in joint mission activity.
Such a bent toward interservice cooperation greatly reassures some local officials, who say such joint ventures make the trio of bases invaluable.
"Actually, I’m very encouraged," said James "Pat" Foley, chairman of the North Hanover Township Economic Advisory Committee and president of the Northern Burlington County Regional Board of Education. "I’m very excited to see cooperation between the services."
Mr. Foley said the bustling bases, already set to deal with the world’s current crop of issues, are too valuable to be swept away in the DOD’s budget cuts. And while he admitted that the BRAC process is "not without some trepidation," he said he would be surprised if anything were downsized. In fact, he said, "I wouldn’t be surprised if we see an increase" of activity at the bases."
Even at the direct municipal level, officials say they are not overly concerned.
"We’re kind of expecting to be let off the hook this time," said New Hanover Mayor Sharon Atkinson, who also said "it doesn’t make sense" for the military to spend so much money on on-base projects, such as new housing units on Fort Dix and the aforementioned runway at McGuire, and then pull out.
Still, Mayor Atkinson said, there are the ghosts of the past that keep any sense of ultimate relief bottled up for now.
"We’re anxious, if not on pins and needles," she said.

