Boston.com
September 8, 2004

State officials present plan for expanded Hanscom

By Theo Emery, Associated Press Writer

BOSTON -- In a bid to prevent the Pentagon from closing Hanscom Air Force
Base in Bedford, officials unveiled a plan on Wednesday for expanding the
base into a high-tech military research hub.

The Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative, a public-private
consortium, presented the Hanscom expansion plan Wednesday evening to a
committee of four town officials from neighboring Bedford, Lexington,
Concord and Lincoln.

The base is a perfect location for military research and development because
of nearby intellectual centers, such as universities and military
contractors, said MassDTI spokesman Alan Macdonald.

"Our argument is that we have something unique here: This is one of the
premier technology clusters relevant to the technology mission of the
military," he said.

Wednesday's presentation to the Hanscom Area Towns committee is part of a
lobbying effort to keep Hanscom open as the Department of Defense goes
through its 2005 base realignment and closure process, known as BRAC. The
Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick is also up for review.

Committee chairwoman Sara Mattes, a Lincoln selectwoman, said the committee
"very enthusiastically" endorsed the plan. Each member would seek a similar
endorsement from their respective town select board, she said.

She said that closing the base would be "devastating" to the four towns that
surround it.

"It's a very creative approach to being able to keep Hanscom Air Force Base
here and show that we can in fact expand its capacity," she said.

Four previous rounds of base closings have closed or realigned 97 major
bases, leaving about 425 major bases to face scrutiny this year. Pentagon
officials have stressed that although there is no list of targeted bases,
every one will be considered, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said
that he wants to cut at least 20 percent of base capacity.

Officials were heartened in February when Ray DuBois, Defense Department
undersecretary in charge of installations, told them that the Pentagon will
consider high-tech research benefits when deciding which bases to close, and
that Massachusetts may be better off this round than in previous rounds.

The $409 million plan calls for the addition of more than 1.2 million square
feet of high-tech military research and development space and 800 housing
units. The housing would pay for itself, while the state would have to float
$241 million in bonds to finance the rest.

The plan would add about 4,000 new jobs to the 8,500 employees already
working on the base and the roughly 21,500 more off-base, Macdonald said.
Lincoln Laboratories, where the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
conducts classified military research, is located on the base.

Kay Tiffany, co-founder of a preservation group called Safeguarding the
Historic Hanscom Area's Irreplaceable Resources, said there's widespread
enthusiasm for the plan.

"I think we all realize that keeping the base here is very important for our
economy. It's an integral part of what makes this region such a rich place
to live," she said. "To lose it would be a serious blow."

State officials who are part of MassDTI, including co-chairs Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy and Gov. Mitt Romney, support the expansion plan.

"The jobs at Hanscom are just the type that we want to keep and attract to
Massachusetts," Romney said in a statement. Kennedy called it "an excellent
plan."

The expansion proposal for Hanscom Air Force Base is separate from the
controversy over nearby Hanscom Field, which has been a battleground for
years because of the Massachusetts Port Authority's plans to expand
commercial air traffic there.

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