Economic Death Sentence for Some : Many Communities Brace for Shutdown of Facilities

For little towns like Rantoul, Ill., Wrightstown, N.J., and Newington, N.H., the recommendation that local military bases be closed sounded like an economic death sentence.

“Probably half the economy of Rantoul depends on Chanute,” said Katy Podagrosi, mayor of the central Illinois town that surrounds Chanute Air Force Base, a facility slated for closure that dates to World War I.

Rantoul has been “at a standstill,” she said, since rumors of the closure spread in recent weeks. Its population of 20,700 includes about 6,000 military personnel and 1,100 residents who work on the base.

Reactions Mixed

But the reaction to news of base closures was not all negative.

Pat Main, Newington’s town secretary, for instance, called the planned closing of Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire “a mixed blessing.”

“We’d be tickled to death not to have the noise of the planes,” she said. But “we’re holding our breath” because of the projected loss of several hundred jobs.

And, predictably enough, in New York City, reports of closing of the Brooklyn Naval Station set off real estate speculation. The 40-acre base on the Brooklyn waterfront could be turned into an industrial park, said Alair Townsend, New York’s deputy mayor for finance and economic development.

“I hope it’s not just going to be another place to build condos,” said John McLuckie of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

On Capitol Hill, where politicians were seeking to gauge the impact of the plan, the pain felt by several dozen communities across the country is not likely to derail the proposal.

“Two dozen members (of the House) are seriously affected by this,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Les Aspin (D-Wis.). By his calculation, only 23 bases with more than 30 employees will be closed. Because the districts of most of the 435 House members escaped unscathed, they can be counted on to oppose any effort to veto the base-closing recommendations, he said.

“This has become a good government issue,” Aspin said. “I fully expect Congress to approve this package.”

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) praised the report and also predicted approval. But, like Aspin, Nunn will not have to answer to constituents losing their jobs. His home state of Georgia, along with Aspin’s home state of Wisconsin, are not touched by the closings.

Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) said that he wants to know whether politics played any role in the selection of bases to be closed.

“That’s a legitimate question,” said Wilson, noting that states like California, New Jersey and New Hampshire were hit hard, but the Southern states whose congressional representatives have dominated military affairs suffered no losses.

Wilson told a Capitol Hill news conference that he is “tremendously disappointed” with the report. He said that he was particularly upset by the recommendation against basing the battleship Missouri at Hunters Point in San Francisco, calling it “a clearly flawed judgment” by the commission.

With more than 17,000 military and civilian jobs to be lost, California was hardest hit of all the states. The report notes, however, that this projected loss amounts to only 5% of the state’s military-related jobs. Illinois is projected to lose about 5,600 military and civilian jobs, nearly 10% of its current total.

Meanwhile, Texas, the home state of President-elect George Bush, House Speaker Jim Wright, a Ft. Worth Democrat, and incoming Defense Secretary John Tower will see a net gain in its already huge military presence. Under the commission report, bases in Texas will gain about 1,400 military jobs and 450 civilian positions.

Bruce Giangiorgi, a bank vice president in Highwood, Ill., said that the planned closure of nearby Ft. Sheridan is “irresponsible” and that he suspects politics was at work in its selection. The Pentagon had spent more than $10 million in recent years making improvements at the base, he said. “It doesn’t seem right (that) they would spend our money and turn around and do this,” he said.

He noted that Illinois recently lost out to Texas in its bid to get government funding for the super collider project.

“Unfortunately, Illinois gets a raw deal again, closing two military bases and we keep adding to the Texas economy,” he said.

Staff writers Larry Green and Tracy Shryer in Chicago and Karen Tumulty in New York contributed to this story.