MILITARY SITES Panel votes to delay closures

A Valley congressman hails the vote as good news for the reserve station.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The U.S. House Armed Services Committee voted to delay the national military base closure plan by two years.
The bill moves to the full House for a vote, probably next week, and then to a conference committee with the Senate.
If the Base Realignment and Closure proposal is delayed, it would give local organizers more time to prepare their plan to save the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna, said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th.
The House Armed Service Committee, of which Ryan is a member, voted on an amendment Tuesday to delay BRAC from 2005 to 2007. But the committee rejected a plan to kill the closure process.
"This is a minor victory," Ryan said. "It will pass out of the House. This is good for us because it gives us more time, and it gives us an opportunity to try to get more investment and improvements at the air station."
The amendment is part of the annual House Defense Reauthorization Bill, Ryan said.
The Senate doesn't support the two-year delay but could be open to change, he said.
Here's the situation
"Dealing with base closures may be more than anyone wants to take on" in light of a number of other issues, Ryan said. Those issues include the ongoing problems in Iraq, and the need to recruit more reservists, and that requires bases where they can receive training, he said.
"There's a lot of unanswered questions," Ryan said. "If you eliminate a base, you can't get it back."
Ryan is spearheading local plans to save the Youngstown Air Reserve Station and helped create Operation: Save Our Airbase Reservists.
The local group hired The Spectrum Group, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm, for $45,000 to conduct an evaluation of the air base's strengths and weaknesses. The report should be finished in about 60 days.
The Youngstown base is the only U.S. Department of Defense's C-130 aerial spray unit in the country.
Spectrum officials say the Vienna facility has many positives that should keep it relatively safe from getting on the base closure list. In all, the military plans to close about one-quarter of its bases under the BRAC plan.
skolnick@vindy.com