By Staff
Say more economic incentives needed
By DAN PARSONS
Staff Writer
With 22 possible sites for an outlying landing field on the table and a decision to narrow that list in the offing, top North Carolina officials banded together Tuesday to say no to an OLF unless it has local support.
In a letter to Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter on Tuesday, U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Elizabeth Dole and N.C. Gov. Mike Easley wrote that the Navy would have to offer more economic benefits to affected communities before they would support an OLF in their state.
A decision from Winter whether to formally consider any of six new possible sites is expected soon. Based on broad local opposition to the new sites, Easley asked in November for even more sites to be considered. Shortly thereafter, Dole held a conference call from Washington, D.C. in which she pledged not to support an OLF anywhere in the state without prior local support.
For Washington County Manager David Peoples, for the Navy to make an OLF agreeable to a community, economic assistance “would have to be substantial, up-front and recurring as long as the facility is in operation.” Site C, the Navy’s preferred alternative, is in Washington and Beaufort counties.
The Navy should help counties affected by an OLF with operating expenses and other infrastructure needs the area might have, Peoples said.
The Navy wants to build an OLF to serve as a training field for F/A-18 Super Hornets from both Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, Va. and from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock. The addition of two squadrons of Super Hornets based at Cherry Point could bring an estimated $60 million to Havelock annually. The senators and Gov. Easley welcome that injection of revenue, but wrote to Winter that it is little consolation to the communities that would receive the OLF.
In their letter to Winter, the three “emphasize that the distance between Cherry Point and the four latest, relevant locations in Gates and Camden counties is nearly 120 miles.”
A total of six new sites were proposed by the Navy in September. Two of the new sites, Sandbanks and Old Railroad Grade site are in Gates County. Two are in Camden County in the northeast portion of the state. Those four are closer than Site C to Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, Va., where most of the F-18 Super Hornets that would use the OLF will be stationed.
The remaining two sites are in the southeastern portion of the state. The Angola Bay Gamelands site is in Duplin and Pender counties and the Hofman Forest site, land owned primarily by North Carolina State University is in Jones and Onslow counties.
After the six sites were announced in September, Dole and her staff “reached out to all the counties including the southern sites,” she said in a conference call from Washington, D.C., in November.
In a follow-up interview, Brian Nick, Dole’s chief of staff said communities surrounding the southern sites “had a little more appetite to discuss the possibility of an OLF.”
Nick said also that the Angola Bay Gamelands site was a “disaster in the making because it backs up to a community development and a golf course.”