Boston Sunday Globe -- NorthWest section
September 12, 2004

State plan designed to save air base

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent

A new state plan calling for expanding Hanscom Air Force Base in an effort
to keep the Bedford installation off the Defense Department's base-closure
list next year is likely to be ratified by Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and
Lincoln selectmen in the next week or so, according to officials of those
towns, which border the base.

The Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative, a group lobbying to
preserve the air base and the US Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick,
presented the proposal at a meeting Wednesday night of the Hanscom Area
Towns Committee in Lincoln. The committee is made up of selectmen from the
four towns.

''This concept is a creative smart-growth plan, one that can demonstrate to
the Pentagon that Hanscom Air Force Base has the capacity to absorb new
missions or expanded missions," said Sara Mattes, chairwoman of the
committee and a Lincoln selectwoman.

The state plan envisions $410 million worth of infrastructure improvements
to the base and the construction of 800 new housing units.

The adoption of resolutions by selectmen in the four towns, Mattes said,
would be ''a continuation of wide community support" for the 840-acre base,
opened in 1941. It is the last active-duty air force base in New England.

Bedford selectman Sheldon Moll echoed Mattes's sentiments, saying that an
outpouring of support for the air base is a must.

Adoption of the resolutions by the boards of selectmen would be part of
extensive presentations that Governor Mitt Romney and Senator Edward M.
Kennedy will make to Pentagon officials ''over the next few weeks," said
Christopher Anderson, president of the defense technology initiative and
head of the Massachusetts High Technology Council. The Waltham-based council
formed the initiative earlier this year.

The new plan for saving the air base also had input, Anderson said, from
MassDevelopment, the state's quasi-public economic development authority,
and the Massachusetts Port Authority, which owns and operates the adjoining
Hanscom Field.

While keeping the Army's Natick Labs open is also a top priority, the
Bedford air base is of crucial concern to state officials because it
narrowly escaped being closed in 1995, he said.

''So, Hanscom [Air Force Base] faces serious challenges" in light of
previous scrutiny by the Pentagon, Anderson said.

A nine-member Base Realignment and Closure Commission will be formed early
next year and in May will begin to consider base closings that will be
recommended by the Secretary of Defense. In early September, the commission
will submit its base-closing recommendations to the President. It has been
estimated that 25 percent of the military bases nationwide could be
eliminated.

A centerpiece of the state plan, aimed at getting the commission's positive
attention, is the creation of 1.25 million square feet of space for further
research and development, said Anderson.

''Two major perceptions" of the commission in the past, he said, are that
Hanscom Air Force Base is solely an electronic warfare systems center ''and
only has capacity to serve one military branch." But adding more space could
result in other armed services using the base, he said.

Moreover, expanding the base would probably create thousands of additional
jobs in Massachusetts and keep intact the huge annual economic impact the
base has on the region, he said.

A report to be released later this month reveals, he said, that the Bedford
base and the Natick Labs are responsible for more than 33,000 jobs and
funnel some $3 billion annually into the state's economy. The University of
Massachusetts at Boston prepared the report.

If the Pentagon approves the $410 million in infrastructure improvements
envisioned by the state, the state would contribute about $241 million,
Anderson and others said. The additional base housing would be privately
financed.

The new concept for Hanscom Air Force Base advances the notion that the base
must be retained as an economic and military research engine for the region,
state, and nation, said Moll, the Bedford selectman. ''There is no
alternative to that," he added.

© Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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