Great Lakes Naval Training Center, slated for a massive expansion by the Pentagon earlier this month, was put on a list of bases Monday that still may be shut down by a federal panel.
The federal Base Closure and Realignment Commission formally put the North Chicago base on the short list of installations across the country it will consider closing, even though the Department of Defense recommended two weeks ago that the military consolidate all its basic naval training at Great Lakes.
If the Pentagon’s proposal was approved by the commission, Lake County would stand to gain about 9,000 military and civilian jobs, pumping millions into the county’s economy.
Lake County political and business leaders said they were not surprised by the commission’s decision Monday because they expected the Pentagon’s controversial recommendation to undergo intense scrutiny.
San Diego and Orlando, sites of the two naval training centers slated to be shut down, have been lobbying against Great Lakes since the Pentagon list was released.
Among other things, they have questioned why the Navy would locate its major basic training center more than 1,000 miles from an ocean. They also have speculated that Defense Secretary Les Aspin, who is from nearby Kenosha, may have engineered the Great Lakes expansion proposal.
Even though Illinois leaders had expected Monday’s setback, they issued a call to arms to the county to turn up its fight to defend Great Lakes.
“The other two communities have been pointing at Great Lakes all along,” U.S. Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.) said after the commission’s vote Monday. “This is not unexpected. We knew the commission was going to look at all three bases. This just means we have to keep up the fight.”
The commission’s vote Monday means that the operations of the bases in San Diego, Orlando and North Chicago will be viewed equally. The commission on Monday also decided to go against the Pentagon’s advice and restore two other California bases and one Guam base to the list of those under consideration for closure.
All the communities on the list now will have the opportunity to argue their cases before the commission in local hearings this spring.
Lake County Board Chairman Robert Depke (R-Gurnee) on Monday promised a full-scale debate on the merits of Great Lakes when the commission holds its regional hearing in Detroit in May. Depke said he and other pro-Great Lakes activists had feared the base would be put back on the “hit list,” and, thus, had never shut down their lobbying efforts.
“This just goes to show you,” Depke said. “You think you’re on safe ground, but you’re not.”
Great Lakes’ placement on the list might help county activists’ fundraising efforts, which had slacked off since the Pentagon list was released. And the fund drive will be crucial now, officials said.
The Lake County activists will hire additional consultants to step up preparations of the Great Lakes presentation for the May commission hearing, said Ron Weeks, co-chairman of the grass-roots group Volunteers Organized in Concerned Effort.
Former U.S. Sen. Alan Dixon, once the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, likely will be one of the consultants, Weeks said.
“What this means is, we’ll have to spend money, money we hoped we wouldn’t have to spend,” Weeks said. “We’re talking anywhere from $100,000 to $500,000 to put this on.”
North Chicago Mayor Bobby Thompson said he never thought the base was on safe ground.
“I’d said all the time, just because it wasn’t on the list at that time didn’t mean anything to me,” Thompson said. “It could be back on. Two years ago, in 1991, the same thing happened.”
Indeed, Great Lakes has survived placement on the closure commission’s short list before. In 1991, during the second round of closure talks, the commission put Great Lakes on its draft despite the Pentagon’s recommendations to the contrary.
Great Lakes was removed from the list in short order, as were the bases at San Diego and Orlando.
In their arguments, advocates in San Diego and Orlando are expected to resurrect complaints that Aspin showed favoritism toward Great Lakes.
But Great Lakes advocates may lodge favoritism complaints of their own.
Beverly Byron, the base-closing commission member who made the motion to put Great Lakes on the short list Monday, also is a member of the board of directors of a company with interests in a downtown Orlando entertainment complex, according to published reports. The complex relies heavily on the naval training center for its business.
In commission hearings this month, Byron questioned whether “housing, schools and infrastructure of the surrounding area (could) support the (Great Lakes) base and any expansion.”
Still, Lake County officials said Monday they don’t think the recent decision by North Chicago Unit District 187 school board to shut down, possibly this fall, had anything to do with the commission’s decision.
The decision Monday may signal a streak of independence for the new commission. The Pentagon’s recommendations barely had been delivered last week when James Courter, chairman of the base-closing panel, said Great Lakes and a few other bases were not out of the woods yet.
In addition to Great Lakes, the commission also voted to put McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento and the Army language school at the Presidio of Monterey and the Naval Air Station in Agana, Guam, on the list of those to be considered for closure. The Pentagon recommendation calls for all four to remain open.
The commission’s recommendations are due to be delivered to President Clinton in July. Ultimately, Congress will accept or reject the recommendations for closure, but cannot make changes to the commission’s list.
