Posts Tagged ‘economic development’

Ten years after the Navy departed Vieques, the small Puerto Rican island still has not realized its hope of improving its economic fortunes. One key challenge, clearing the island’s bombing range of munitions, is expected to require at least 12 more years with a total expected cost of $350 million, reports Stars and Stripes. “The Navy considers Vieques to be its highest priority in the munitions cleanup program,” said the Navy’s Dan Waddill. “Vieques gets by far the most effort and the highest amount of funding …

The Navy signed an agreement last week with NASA allowing turboprop aircraft based in Norfolk, Va., to use the Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore to practice carrier landings. Under the agreement, the Navy will pay NASA $1.9 million a year for repairs and upgrades to the airfield, as well as reimburse the agency for support services it uses, reported the Virginian-Pilot. The Navy’s selection in January of the Wallops facility as an alternate landing site provides a host of benefits to the federal government and the Norfolk region …

Economic development officials in Grand Forks, N.D., say their goals revolving around Grand Forks Air Force Base shouldn’t be hindered by the unexpected departure last month of the wing commander. “As a community, we’re used to these transitions,” said Chamber of Commerce President Barry Wilfahrt. “We already anticipated working with a new commander in May or June anyway …

Two decades after it closed, the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, S.C., is a thriving mixed-use redevelopment, featuring a town center, a variety of housing types, a technology and aerospace business park, and a commercial and general aviation airport. Other air bases closed around the same time have had varying degrees of success, however, reports the Sun News in a multi-part series marking the 20-year anniversary of the base’s closure. The former Pease AFB, near Portsmouth, N.H., has experienced similar growth to the reuse project at Myrtle Beach AFB …

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown last week highlighted the renewed designation of Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority, the central Ohio site of the former Newark Air Force Base, as a Small Business Administration HUBZone through 2015. An amendment attached to the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill that was sponsored by Brown extends the period during which certain base closure sites can be designated as HUBZones, a status conferring preferential access to federal procurements for qualified small businesses …

The Federal Aviation Administration has received 50 applications from 37 states for its nationwide competition to select six research and test sites for integrating unmanned aircraft systems with manned aircraft. Some states have pooled their resources with neighbors, including Ohio and Indiana, for example …

The small businesses in communities that support military and civilian workers at installations are bracing for declining revenue as defense officials trim spending on contracts and base support services, and civilian personnel begin one-day-a-week furloughs, reports Air Force Times. “Our business is about 90 percent military,” said a used car dealer located about a half-mile from the main gates at Fort Bragg, N.C. “This is a military town. It is going to affect us all. When there’s a cut, people are scared to spend …

A newly created office responsible for promoting military assets and the defense industry in Indiana has its first director after Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann named Duane Embree, the ranking senior civilian at Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane when he retired last November, to helm the state’s Office of Defense Development. “Now is the time for Indiana to declare ourselves as open for military business …

The deputy commander for Camp Lejeune assured local officials attending a community breakfast Tuesday that the base on the coast of North Carolina is too vital to the Marine Corps’ mission to be closed in a future BRAC round. “Camp Lejeune is [staying],” said Col. Darrell Thacker, deputy commander for Marine Corps Installations East-Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. “But as we transition from 202,000 Marines down to 182,000 Marines, there will be impacts on the base …

U.S. Africa Command headquarters will remain in Stuttgart, the Defense Department announced last week, after determining that the advantages of being located in Germany outweigh the added costs. “The secretary, informed by the judgment of the AFRICOM commander and a study of locations, decided the current location serves the operational needs of AFRICOM better than a location in the continental United States,” said DOD spokeswoman Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins …