PORT HUENEME : Navy to Combine 2 Units to Cut Costs

In a move to reduce the military budget, two Navy centers in Port Hueneme will be merged into a single operation at a ceremony this Friday, officials said Monday.

The base’s civil engineering laboratory will combine with the energy and environmental unit to create the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center, said Bill Huey, a Navy spokesman.

Some jobs will be lost because of the reorganization, but Huey said he did not know how many. “There are some people that will be affected in the near future,” he said.

More than 200 scientists and engineers are employed at the laboratory, which provides technological assistance to the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, which has headquarters in Alexandria, Va.

The Naval Energy and Environmental Support Activity unit provides engineering and management assistance related to environmental protection and energy conservation. That unit employs 150 civilian workers and has 45 Navy personnel assigned to it, a spokesman there said.

The Navy announced the consolidation as part of its ongoing effort to pare down its portion of the military budget, Huey said. The merger was recommended in a July, 1992, feasibility study commissioned by the Navy.

By combining the two units, the Navy will avoid duplicating its efforts, Huey said. But Navy officials were unable to say how much money would be saved by combining the units.

Capt. Joseph C. Penell, the commanding officer of the laboratory, will take over command of the new Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center at a ceremony scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday in front of the Bard Mansion Officers’ Club.

Three other services based in Washington, D.C., will be included in the consolidation.