The federal government has awarded $3 million to seed an initiative aimed at stemming the potential “brain drain” of highly skilled workers resulting from the closure of Fort Monmouth.
The Department of Defense funding will promote the New Jersey Technology Solutions Center’s mission to retain some of the state’s highly specialized workers by providing employment opportunities for Fort Monmouth employees who will be jobless following the fort’s closure in 2011.
“The hope is that … the organization would increase high-tech business in the region and those employers or the nonprofit [center] itself would be able to hire workers from Fort Monmouth who would be losing their jobs,” explained Amy Fitzgerald, Monmouth County Economic Workforce Development director.
Fitzgerald said the nonprofit New Jersey Technology Solutions Center, although still in its infancy, will help to promote business for former defense contractors in the area by bringing them together jointly to bid on federal, state and other projects.
It is the tech center’s mission, Fitzgerald said, to “act as an economic development engine for high-tech work in the area.”
Initially formed in December 2008 through a grant from the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the center will focus on spurring the growth of high-tech companies in the area by bringing them together under an umbrella organization, Fitzgerald explained.
Fitzgerald said that the technology center does not yet have a permanent physical location. However, that is expected to change when the approved federal funding is approved.
Reps. Frank Pallone (D-6th District) and Rush Holt (D-12th District), who helped secure the federal funding, said the center’s mission is critical to the region.
“They may be closing Fort Monmouth but we don’t want to lose the skills and knowledge these men and women possess,” Pallone said in a press release. “This funding will utilize the unique skills of these workers and keep some of these jobs here in New Jersey.
Fort Monmouth employees provide essential security for the U.S. military, which will continue with this funding regardless of whether or not the fort closes.”
According to Patrick Eddington, Holt’s senior policy adviser, “This is a mechanism whereby we can essentially help workers who are going to stay in New Jersey have the opportunity to continue to work in their field on projects that affect the national security of the United States.
“So it could be through the Department of Defense, it could be through the intelligence agencies, it could be through the Department of Homeland Security,” Eddington explained.
“There are a very, very large number, ultimately, of things that those folks can be doing to help protect us and to help protect our troops. So helping to capture those workers and give them the opportunity to continue working in those fields for the security of the United States, that is the purpose of this.”
According to Holt, funding for the Technology Solutions Center will ultimately help troops at home and abroad.
This latest push to keep high-tech jobs in the state comes just one year before the Army will close Fort Monmouth and move its mission to the Army Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, Md., potentially taking with it some 5,000 employees and another 10,000 contracted positions.
It was this large loss of jobs and its potential impact on the region that led area politicians and residents to protest the Base Realignment and Closure Commission decision to close the fort in 2005.
Advocates continue to challenge the decision to close the fort.
“As we continue to fight the misguided and costly BRAC decision to close Fort Monmouth, we still have an obligation to ensure that our troops have the communications and intelligence support they need should the closure decision stand,” he said.
“The men and women of Fort Monmouth, the scientists, engineers and acquisition specialists who make the IED jammers and related devices have acquired their skills over decades of service,” Holt explained. “The New Jersey Technology Solutions Center would keep them employed to provide that support.”
Rick Harrison, deputy director of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization PlanningAuthority (FMERPA), praised the Technology Solutions Center and the government’s decision to provide it with funding.
“We are happy that there is such an organization and we are thrilled that the congressmen were able to get that funding,” he said.
According to Harrison, despite the fact that the Technology Solutions Center does not have any connection to FMERPA, the nonprofit center will eventually help the authority achieve its single most important goal — the creation of jobs following Fort Monmouth’s closure.
“Our major concern is bringing jobs into the area,” Harrison said. “We are thrilled [the Technology Solutions Center] has been endorsed.
“We are happy about it and it certainly is going to make our jobs easier. Hopefully [there will be fewer] jobs to worry about finding and replacing.”
The $3 million is the second infusion of funds by the government to help secure jobs for Fort Monmouth workers who will not be following the mission to Aberdeen, when the fort closes in 2011.
According to Fitzgerald, a National Emergency Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor was provided specifically to retrain fort workers who want to remain in the area for new employment opportunities.
Although the fort is expected to close in less than a year, Fitzgerald explained that there is no accurate count of how many fort employees are expected to stay in the area and how many are willing to move to Maryland at this time.
According to Fitzgerald, this is due concern on the part of fort employees that committing to a decision would jeopardize their current status.
Contact Daniel Howley at dhowley@gmnews.com.