Vendors and Workers Worry About Closing, Cutbacks at Two Bases : Cutbacks: Many jobs could be lost from the direct and indirect effects of actions against NTC, MCRD.

Alex Morena hasn’t been able to stop thinking about the distinct possibility that the Defense Department might close down or dramatically shrink the Marine Corps Recruit Depot and the Naval Training Center in San Diego.

“I think about it at least a couple of times each hour,” said Morena, the junior barber in Johnny Novato’s two-man shop on Rosecrans Street across the street from Gate 6 of the Naval Training Center. “I can’t not think about it.”

Morena’s discomfort is driven by the fact that half of the customers who stop at Novato’s shop come from the nearby Marine and Navy bases. And, if the bases are closed or realigned, the shop will lose customers--and Novato might have to let Morena go.

The economic uncertainty dogging Morena and other San Diegans whose livelihoods are tied to the military began in May when the two training bases unexpectedly appeared on a list of bases that the federal Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission recommended for elimination or restructuring.

A final list of bases recommended for elimination or downsizing will be turned over to Congress, the final arbiter, on July 1.

The training facilities are dwarfed in size by the the San Diego Naval Station on San Diego Bay, the massive Marine complex in Camp Pendleton north of Oceanside and other military installations in the county. Payrolls at the county’s bases hit an estimated $4.8 billion during 1990, according to Bob Hudson, a spokesman for the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce.

Nevertheless, the loss of one or both of the two training bases would still hurt because they pump a combined $300 million annually into San Diego County’s economy. The bases also boost tourism by attracting as many as 100,000 visitors each year--mainly parents in town to attend recruit graduation ceremonies.

The short-term economic pain that would be generated by base closings would be most noticeable at the assorted stores, hotels, restaurants, bars and other establishments that ring the two facilities that sit northwest of downtown San Diego next to Lindbergh Field. But also affected would be a broad range of suppliers from food and energy companies to laundries and taxicab drivers.

Yet, despite the obvious economic consequences, San Diego officials are downplaying those aspects in an attempt to avoid charges of “pork barrel” politics, Hudson said. Local officials don’t want to appear more interested in financial gain than the national interest.

Orlando officials, who are fighting to retain their own Naval Training Center, which pumps an estimated $500 million into that city’s economy, have adopted the same strategy. “The argument that my ox is being gored is just not going to fly these days,” said Rick Tesch, president of the Economic Development Commission of Mid-Florida.

San Diego and Orlando were pitted against each other earlier this year when the base closure commission recommended that a Navy training center in Illinois remain open--but that the Navy close a base in either Orlando or San Diego.

Although the Illinois base is apparently safe, San Diego and Orlando now are lobbying fiercely to protect their local bases.

Orlando hired a consultant who produced a study touting the Orlando location’s strong points and highlighting the San Diego base’s inefficiencies. San Diego officials promptly responded with a “fact sheet” that included a glaring difference: Orlando is land-locked, and San Diego is home port to the nation’s largest collection of oceangoing warships.

Although San Diego officials express confidence in their ability to sway the base closure commission, they acknowledge that the county faces an uphill fight. There is growing sentiment elsewhere in the country that San Diego, which escaped previous rounds of base closings, “should be forced to share some of the defense base closure burden,” according to Rep. Duncan Hunter.

San Diego’s economy has diversified in recent years, but the Defense Department is still a major factor in the county’s economic health. The local business community learned during the recent Middle East war just how reliant the county is upon Uncle Sam.

When 60,000 Marines and Navy personnel were deployed in the Middle East, local retail sales fell, as did automobile sales. The economic pain was felt across the board by businesses, including those that don’t sell directly to the military.

“Some of our accounts that were spending $2,000 per week didn’t have orders for a couple of weeks,” said Bryan Marley, vice president of purchasing for Joseph Webb Foods, an Escondido-based company that sells fresh and frozen foods and supplies to local restaurants.

“We’re going to have to do some re-crunching,” said Pacific Services Co. President Verne Thompson, who has operated military-related businesses in San Diego for 40 years, including five laundry and dry-cleaning establishments. “We’ll just have to work harder with the civilian sector,” said Thompson, whose business relies on the military for half its sales.

Thompson, who served with the Marines during World War II and the Korean War, argues that the Navy should retain the training center in San Diego “because (unlike Orlando) we’ve got the goddamned water and boats right here.”

But Thompson acknowledged that it probably is “foolhardy” for San Diegans to fight for the Marine recruit depot, because other bases are newer and more efficient. “I don’t know if it’s going to (close) in this (round of base closings) or the next, but the honeymoon is over . . . . At some point, you’ve go to do what’s good for the country, not what’s best for Verne Thompson.”

“The military, by its own admission, is going to cut back by 25% during the next five years,” Thompson said. “It’s foolhardy for us as businessmen to sit here and say, ‘It isn’t going to happen.’ ”

Western Pacific, a San Diego-based food service distributor that does “quite a bit of business” with the MCRD and NTC, faces a “substantial loss . . . (that) would definitely hurt our bottom line,” said Tracy Beck, office manager for the firm.

Base closings also will have an impact on companies that don’t do a great deal of direct business with military installations.

The loss of MCRD and NTC “won’t have any major impact on us,” said Marley of Joseph Webb Foods. But “where we’ll probably feel more of an affect is the loss of (Navy and Marine) personnel and their families, who won’t be eating in the restaurants we supply,” Marley said. “There’s going to be a definite impact on San Diego County if those people leave.”