Hill AFB again going to battle — for survival

WASHINGTON — Formally beginning work on the next round of base closures, the Pentagon on Tuesday ordered all bases nationwide to begin submitting data to help it decide which ones should be shut down to save money.

Deseret Morning News graphic HAFB by the numbers Requires Adobe Acrobat.

Utah leaders, meanwhile, say they are unsure whether the Pentagon's new, proposed criteria for determining which bases should survive will help or hurt Hill Air Force Base, the state's largest employer with more than 23,000 civilian and military workers.

"Some portions, on the surface, appear to help Hill — but there's nothing you can hang your hat on and say it's a done deal. It's still a tenuous process. . . . The criteria are a bit more generalized than I had hoped," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

The eight specific criteria proposed give most weight to "military value." They also order consideration of such things as cost of operations; how long before a closure would bring savings considering shutdown costs; economic impact on the community; environmental impacts; and the ability of other bases to absorb or transfer work.

Utah officials say the second-highest priority criteria among the eight specifics proposed may help Hill the most. It orders giving priority to facilities and airspace that offer training "through a diversity of climate and terrain areas."

"The Utah Test and Training Range (operated by Hill) offers all sorts of terrain, which you don't get with many ranges that are only over water," said Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah. "And Hill operates in all kinds of weather."

Bishop added, "The change of seasons, the terrain and the number of flying days at Hill are all pluses."

Also, Utah officials have long argued that Hill is among the most cost-effective of the nation's large repair-and-maintenance depots; would be expensive to close; may not allow true closure of its test range because of environmental problems from unexploded ordnance; and would devastate Utah's economy if it closes.

Hill's payroll exceeds $838 million, in 2002 figures. Base officials say Hill's total impact on the Utah economy is more than $2.5 billion yearly.

Vickie McCall, director of the Utah Defense Alliance, a group chartered by the state to help defend Hill, said recently, "If Hill closes, we would not only be in a recession, we would be in a depression, and it could take us 20 years to recover."

But Bishop warned, "All bases will have economic impacts. And all the bases left, generally, are very good. . . . So my gut instinct is that, again, it is going to be close competition among the bases."