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By ANICK JESDANUN; Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, May 16, 1995 Page: 1A
WASHINGTON — Closing Tobyhanna Army Depot “does not make sense” because of
costs associated with duplicating its features elsewhere, the head of an Army
research unit said in a memorandum.
Col. Michael G. Jones, director of the Army Basing Study, said the closing
would cost more than twice as much and produce only half the annual savings as
the Army’s competing plan to scale down Letterkenny Army Depot and keep
Tobyhanna open.
“Moving this high-tech workload with its requirement for clean rooms to a
low-tech ground depot does not make sense,” Jones wrote the Defense Base
Closure and Realignment Commission in a May 8 letter.
He said the higher costs for Tobyhanna were due to a need for renovations
and personnel relocation.
Nevertheless, the commission voted two days later to make Tobyhanna a
candidate for closure, a move that threatens about 3,500 jobs in the Scranton
area. Letterkenny, located 170 miles away in Chambersburg, Pa., would get
2,460 of those jobs under a preliminary plan.
“This caught us all by surprise,” said Leonard Ziolkowski, deputy director
of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Economic Development Council and a member of
the Blue Ribbon Task Force formed to save Tobyhanna. The depot is the largest
employer in the northeastern part of the state.
“This may be a political thing,” Ziolkowski said of the latest commission
vote. “We just have to play that game.”
Ziolkowski said that if the commission rates Tobyhanna solely on its
merits, it will keep the depot open. He said he was heartened by the comments
contained in the memorandum.
“We’re optimistic,” he said Monday. “We’re still in the fight.”
That fight will be waged with renewed vigor in coming months, as the depot
and the task force prepares for a visit by a commission member and a hearing
in Boston.
Ziolkowski said Monday a member of the base closure commission will visit
the depot June 1. Soon after, task force members hope to testify before the
commission during hearings conducted June 3 in Boston. To prepare for the
one-hour presentation promoting the depot, the task force is in the midst of
raising money to pay for a consulting firm.
Monday, the Luzerne County Commissioners pledged $6,000 to the task force,
which is based at the development council offices in Pittston. The Lackawanna
County Commissioners pledged $10,000, Ziolkowski said. The city of Scranton
pledged $3,000 and the task force hopes the city of Wilkes-Barre donates a
similar amount.
Also Monday, the Base Closure and Realignment Commission Political Action
Committee met with the task force in Pittston to discuss ways to keep the
depot open. The PAC was formed by Gov. Tom Ridge in February to support and
guide local efforts to protect military bases from possible closure. Ridge
developed the PAC to provide greater coordination of federal, state and local
efforts to save the state’s defense-related jobs.
Ziolkowski said PAC members discussed organizing a large crowd to meet the
commission member at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport in Avoca
June 1. The task force hopes school bands will play and residents will line a
motorcade route with American flags and posters supporting the depot.
“We want to get everyone out,” Ziolkowski said.
Opened in 1953, Tobyhanna is responsible for designing, manufacturing and
repairing several communications and electronics systems.
Letterkenny has been designated a center for tactical missile repair, but
the Army wants to transfer repair of the missiles’ electronic components to
Tobyhanna because of the expertise there.
Under the Army plan, Letterkenny would stay open to take apart and store
the missiles while Tobyhanna works on their internal components.
But some commissioners have been critical of the Army for appearing to
reverse the panel’s 1993 directive to consolidate missiles at Letterkenny. The
commission on April 26 asked the Army for further studies on four alternative
scenarios, including the one involving Tobyhanna’s closure.
Under that plan, Tobyhanna’s electronic servicing mission would be
transferred to Letterkenny, which would stay open. Annual savings of $33
million are anticipated after a one-time closure cost of $154 million.
By contrast, the Army would save $78 million a year after a one-time cost
of $50 million under its plan to scale down Letterkenny.
Jones said the commission’s four alternative options “are neither
supportable nor preferable,” to the Army’s own recommendations.
The commission last week said it also would consider an option to scale
down Letterkenny further than what the Army proposed. Missile work would go to
Hill Air Force Base in Utah, and Letterkenny would lose about 400 jobs on top
of the 2,468 already targeted for elimination.
The commission rejected an alternative involving outright closure of
Letterkenny as well as one that involved a transfer of work from Anniston Army
Depot in Alabama to Red River Army Depot in Texas.
Commission officials stressed their action to target Tobyhanna did not
necessarily mean the base would be included in the final recommendation to
President Clinton, due July 1. A visit to Tobyhanna is planned, further
analysis is anticipated and final deliberations are scheduled for late June.
Tobyhanna has been a target before. A Pentagon cross-service review panel
offered options that involved transferring Tobyhanna’s functions to Anniston
and to Air Force and Navy installations.
The Army did not include those options in its final base-closure
recommendation, considering them to be costly.
Times Leader staff writer Dawn Shurmaitis contributed to this story.