San Bernardino Co. Tries to Look at Life Without the Bases

The proposed closure of Norton Air Force Base and George Air Force Base in San Bernardino County has raised the specter of civil warfare among competing interests seeking control of the 10,000-foot airstrips and combined 8,500 acres of valuable land once the military vacates.

In an effort to avoid such a war, San Bernardino Mayor Evlyn Wilcox has called for a local steering committee that would negotiate with federal authorities to have the 2,500-acre Norton Air Force Base given to the county for use as a high-tech industrial park.

Such a plan would help ease the pain of losing an estimated 6,600 jobs and $248-million payroll in the housing-rich but jobs-poor San Bernardino area, Wilcox said.

Similarly, representatives of the high desert communities of Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Valley and Adelanto on Friday began discussing alternative uses for 6,000-acre George Air Force Base, which pumps an estimated $500 million a year into a region that has a population of 150,000. Suggestions include preserving a new 25-bed hospital on the base and converting its airstrip into a commercial airport for light aircraft and cargo planes, city officials said.

Commission Recommendations

The defense secretary’s Commission on Base Realignment and Closure recommended Thursday that Norton and George Air Force bases, along with four other bases in California and 80 more across the nation, be closed, beginning in January, 1990. The closures would be carried out over a five-year period.

Although authorities responsible for disposing of military bases laud the formation of local steering committees as a first step, they warned that transfers of military installations must follow a complex maze of regulations.

“We have a process to follow and, when requested, we will come to the community and walk it through all this stuff,” said Robert Rauner, director of the Office of Economic Adjustment, a Defense Department agency.

Over the last 27 years, the Office of Economic Adjustment has helped more than 400 communities across the nation offset lost jobs and revenue from the closure of military bases, military officials said.

The process begins when the military occupant, in this case the Air Force, asks other branches of the military if they are interested in acquiring the property, Rauner said.

If that offer is turned down, the secretary of defense then asks other federal agencies--the U.S. Weather Service, for example--if they have use for it, Rauner said.

“If they say no, then the same question is asked of state and local governments--and here’s where it gets messy,” Rauner said. “There is a big, thick and intricate set of rules and regulations on this.”

Under certain conditions, the property could be given to the county, for example, free of charge, and used for purposes ranging from industry and commercial aviation to community parks, schools and technical training centers.

The property also could be sold to a local government at fair market value, Rauner said. For example, when the Brooklyn Naval Yard in New York was closed in the early 1960s, New York City eventually negotiated to buy it for about half the $40 million originally requested by the federal government, he said. The land was turned into an industrial park.

However, San Bernardino County leaders pointed out that when Dow Air Force Base in Bangor, Me., was closed in 1964, property estimated to be worth $200 million was sold to the city of Bangor for $1.

Despite the complexity of the process, Rauner said, “it is remarkable how little blood has been spilled in these things.”

For example, the Oxnard Air Force Base in Ventura County, which was closed in 1973, now houses facilities owned by Ventura County Community College, Ventura County and the Oxnard High School District. In another case, Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, which was closed in 1971, is now headquarters of the U.S. Olympic Committee, military officials said.

Some San Bernardino County community leaders on Friday, however, suggested that they would not pay for the Norton property, which they claim was a gift to the military in the first place.

“The county donated that land to the military in 1942,” said Gerald Bean, president of Inland Action, an influential group of 40 chief executives formed in 1963 to act as a liaison between the county and the base. “If they no longer need it, we feel they should give it back to us.”

Beyond that, Bean said San Bernardino County is bearing a disproportionate share of the base closure burden.

“This county is losing more than 12,000 jobs and this exceeds the next closest state, Illinois, which is losing 6,000 jobs,” Bean said. “We intend to use this fact to encourage the federal government to provide extraordinary aid and cooperation as we attempt to overcome the economic problems of base closure.”

Fight to Save Bases

To be sure, the current priority of county and local leaders in San Bernardino and the high desert is to fight to save the military bases and preserve the jobs, revenues and contracts they have provided for more than 40 years.

But Mayor Wilcox said, “In anticipation that we may be facing some form of base closure, we have had discussions and laid groundwork to address this challenge in an organized and expeditious manner.”

These efforts include the formation soon of a Norton Re-use Committee composed of business leaders and public officials who would investigate potential federal funding available to assist in master plan and redevelopment activities, Wilcox said.

Rauner said that his office offers grants for such purposes ranging from $50,000 to $100,000. “These grants are often matched by local jurisdictions,” he said, “and that buys you a director, a couple of program officers and secretaries.”

Like officials in San Bernardino, “we in the high desert are gearing up for a worst-case scenario,” said Victorville City Councilwoman Peggy Sartor.

“We will meet next week with representatives of the four cities in our area to discuss the problem. Preserving the hospital at George would be a priority. It would be a shame to see those facilities go down the drain.”

The closure list released Thursday must be accepted or rejected by the secretary of defense and then forwarded to Congress by Jan. 16, 1989. Congress has 45 session days after March 1 to accept or reject the list before sending on to the President for approval.