In an abrupt reversal, Gov. Rendell yesterday abandoned plans to convert the soon-to-close Willow Grove Naval Air Station into a state-administered emergency and defense hub.
Rendell wrote to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that because the military had declined to assign a flying mission to the Pennsylvania Air National Guard’s 111th Fighter Wing at the base, the state could not justify spending millions of dollars to configure the airfield as a state-federal facility.
“The continued and increasing expenditures of scarce state resources on this project made no sense as long as the federal government failed to commit to being a full partner in this effort,” Rendell wrote to Gates.
The decision likely ends a fight that Rendell began after Willow Grove turned up on the Defense Department’s list of recommended base closings in 2005. Rather than see the 1,100-acre base shut down, Rendell proposed converting it into a nexus for the region’s homeland security and other government needs, with outside agencies paying rent to the state to cover expenses.
Although the facility was expected to become fiscally self-sufficient eventually, the state estimated that it would have to spend up to $19 million on capital improvements and first-year operating costs, a sum Rendell now has called “an undue fiscal burden” during lean times.
Read the full Inquirer story here
Tags: Rendell
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