From the Army Alliance:
(Aberdeen, MD)—The Army Alliance, in partnership with the Chesapeake Science and Security Corridor (CSSC), requests community participation in an information session and public forum on proposed job losses at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), MD. This event will serve as a ‘Community Call to Action’ with 4,300 military and civilian jobs at stake. The forum will be held on Monday, August 4, 2014, at Aberdeen High School Auditorium, 251 Paradise Road in Aberdeen, from 6:00PM-8:00PM.
APG is one of nine Army installations selected for potential troop and personnel reductions, representing nearly a third of existing staff levels. The Department of the Army has completed a Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Assessment (SPEA) for Army 2020 force structure realignment, which was released on June 26, 2014.
Final decisions have not yet been made as to which installations will be selected for reductions in soldiers and Army civilians. This is a result of the current federal budget constraints and the resulting reduction of the Army’s active duty from 570,000 to 490,000 troop numbers. Sequestration could further reduce the number to 420,000. Fort Meade is the only other Maryland installation impacted by the current SPEA. They are the only two installations impacted on the East Coast.
The Army Alliance and CSSC encourage maximum participation at the Community Call to Action forum from public officials, citizens and business leaders to continue an ongoing dialogue about protecting APG’s unique mission capabilities and its skilled workforce.
“While this is not a BRAC activity, it is a process in which we must remain engaged as informed citizens to ensure relative stability to proportioned reductions,” says Army Alliance President Jill McClune.
Following introductory remarks by Harford County Executive David Craig and City of Aberdeen Mayor Michael Bennett, the forum will host a panel of state and local leaders who will provide more detailed information regarding the findings of the SPEA report and discuss the possible impacts to the Greater APG community throughout the Corridor. A Q & A session will follow.
The panel will be moderated by James Richardson, Harford County Economic Development Director, and feature the following speakers:
– BGen J. Michael Hayes, USMC (Ret), Managing Director, Office of Military & Federal Affairs, MD Department of Business & Economic Development;
– Jill McClune, President, Army Alliance
– Eric McLauchlin, Esq. , Attorney at Law, Shaffer, McLauchlin & Stover, LLC, and Chair of Harford County Economic Development Advisory Board; and
– Brian M. Simmons, Army Alliance Board of Directors
“The SPEA public comment period will conclude on August 25, 2014, and the forum provides an opportunity to educate the community on the findings and develop a unified community response,” said Karen Holt, Regional Manager, CSSC.
Reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities will be provided upon request; please notify Eva Hanley in advance at 410-273-5708.
Can’t wait to hear what Mayor Mike Bennett has to say since he has done very little to push the City forward during his administration and absolutely nothing to embrace the BRAC.The administration prior to his had a firm handle on how to embrace the welcome influx of high paying jobs. Bennett and the rest of his council dolts have acted as place holders working harder to increase their salaries for doing absolutely nothing. They have pandered to a local redeveloper and to the Ripkins while three great developments of class A office space lay vacant. Further this mayor reversed an agreement to bring the Catholic Charities CCRC ( which would house the wealthy baby boomers) while at the same time taking an all expenses paid vacation down south to lie to another municipality about how proffitable Ripkin Stadium is.
The citizens of Aberdeen should be concerned. Not properly embracing the BRAC could lead to troop and job reduction in the area. They are the elected officials responsible for the outcomes not the City Manager who doesn’t serve the citizens, just the Mayor and council. They say this troup and job reduction is not a BRAC action but the results are the same. The people of Aberdeen better wake up.
Hey, we got a Chik-fil-A out of it!
How many more years will that big fancy brick office complex sit unoccupied next to Target in Aberdeen?
BRAC will save us all. Ask the politicians. EVERYone from N.J. and all over the country are coming to Aberdeen/Harford county. That’s what OWE’Malley and others said. PS. Politicians know “all.” Just ask them.
More free parking for Black Friday @ Target. My bad, Americans may have to walk some. Sorry. And is it still Black Friday? Sounds racist and not P.C. correct.
The voters rule. I didn’t vote for him.
“Can’t wait to hear what Mayor Mike Bennett has to say since he has done very little to push the City forward during his administration and absolutely nothing to embrace the BRAC”
WHAT BRAC???????
Dumb ass. The Base Realignment and Closure that brought Ft Monmonth to Aberdeen.
It’s not just the city of Aberdeen that had failed to take the ball (BRAC) and run with it! The county executive and county council told us for years that the BRAC was going to be a savior of the entire county ! Where are the benefited ie tax dollars and high paying jobs !!
CV,
The county did benefit, as you will see when the fed money shrinks. But many of us kept trying to warn you that you cannot live off the government. I read many posts stating that what was needed were private sector jobs not dependent on government – seems to me those posts got thumbed down out of existence. Now the chickens (as they classically say) are coming home to roost. With the reduction of fed government jobs will come the loss of county jobs. Live by the government tit – die by the government tit.
It’s Bush’s fault. Oh, no… wait – it’s Craig’s fault. But… but our savior D-James is getting us 20 more jobs at the Proving Ground and it will only cost 10 million.
Good Grief!
This has nothing to do with Craig – or anybody in a political party you don’t like – this is the total and complete decision making of our national administration, in specific the executive branch! Once we pulled out of Iraq (and gave it to ISIS) and as we pull out of Afghanistan, the decision was made to reduce the military.
It is stunningly stupid to blame any of this on local politicians – but, it will be done anyway: how about this crap: “Not properly embracing the BRAC could lead to troop and job reduction in the area” – that comment is so low rent it could be a spring break destination.
We should be grateful that the county saw this coming and kept some austerity in the budget.
Here we go again,
I know you are the smartest person you ever met. That said, you are wrong; not in the broad strokes but the end game in troop reduction, base closure, and the like is that there will be parts of the country that lose and parts that will gain.Mikulski and sarbanes under the direction of Tom Sadowski ( now director of The Economic alliance of greater Baltimore) were able to help this region gain from the closure of Ft Monmouth. it was then up to the local and state politicians to build a platform that could support the influx of thousands of hitech jobs. That hasn’t happened to the satisfaction of the government.
Not a Thong worth singing,
What a pantload! You come across like Professor Irwin Corey explaining the infield fly rule – just a gobbled word salad of banal vagaries.
“Well, you know…. we brought the bodies here but ah… well, you know… it was up to the county to acquire the equipment and expertise to put ’em to work and keep ’em here.” says Bracula. (it’s disgusting that some will actually accept your swill.)
Your comments sell to the political unwashed – but the truth is that fed business is fed business. They bring their own show and bring their own host of fed contractors. This current mess is a national decision and was announced on the national level.
“That hasn’t happened to the satisfaction of the government” – sometimes you just have to call bullshit, bullshit. There is DHS development at the Proving Ground, which is very high tech, and that is where the government has decided to go. They are shrinking the basic military because it was a decision on the national level.
Here you go again,
Like a child who’s only read was Orwell and 1984. Big Brother is coming to get us all.Even the sacrafice of “the political unwashed”. Must be tough being scared all the time.Try putting a sentence together that doesn’t reek of paranoia.
Thong of Hiawatchme,
You got caught.
I guess you failed to put together a platform that explains the lack of their platform’s platform.
Putz.
Here you woe again,
Caught in the spin cycle of your minds washing machine? Relax, have a beer, kick the shit out of your dog. Win at something.
Sounds like Thong should run for political office to clean up all this mess since he or she knows sooooo much…
I would expect to see lots of foreclosures, homes left in disrepair, and left for sale while unoccupied as people who are laid off won’t be able to establish an equal salary replacement job in this area. Thumb me down, buts its coming.
LOL,
The sequestration already put the handwriting on the wall, as they say. There has already been a downturn from that. And, since everyone knew this was coming for quite a while, the contractors have made many adjustments. There never were thousands of hi-tech jobs to have been gleaned from the base shifting anyway. Let’s face it, the base shifting was a downturn, it has just been continuing.
Thank goodness the county has budgeted accordingly.
Those of us who moved from NJ knew right from the start that the “thousands of vacant jobs” promised would never materialize. Two main reasons, that many in the planning process did not anticipate. First, many folks moved with their jobs, but continue to live in NJ. Through a combination of telework, regular commuting, and even sharing a rental during the week, many employees continue to live in NJ For some, it is because they were relatively close to retirement age, and decided that they could weather the inconvenience for a few years. Others had children in high school, and did not want to have to change schools so close to graduation.
Another, though not dominant, reason was that a number of people simply did not want to leave their homes. The leadership forgot that these were not military, used to moving every few years. These were people who had lived in NJ, often in the same house/neighbourhood their whole lives, and had worked at Fort Monmouth for 20, 30 even 40 years. The idea of having to move anywhere was not enthusiastically received.
Second, CECOM hired for and filled many positions in NJ, and then moved those people to Maryland. CECOM leadership fear of not having a sufficient workforce on 15 Sep 2011, when they locked Fort Monmouth’s gates for the last time, created a hiring frenzy – but most of it occurred in NJ, before the closure.
I remember when we moved here, a new Maryland neighbour asked me about hiring opportunities at APG. When I told him we were in a hiring freeze, he asked, “what happened to those 1000’s of jobs?” All I could offer was to tell him to talk to Barb Mikulski, Dutch and all the others who had made all the hollow promises. If they had asked us employees, we could have told them the truth.
BRAC family,
Thanks for setting the record straight. I assume there might be 2,500 loss of military personel (if the Harford County development site is correct that there are 5,000 there now). That might leave us an additional loss of 2,000 civilian works (I assume many don’t even live in Harford County). At least that would total the 4,000 we were projected to lose.
Funny, many of the losses never arrived to really be lost. But then, try to get any straight numbers from the government.
BRAC Family highlighted something of importance. A great deal of folks, I believe 30 percent of folks are getting ready to retire. Perhaps this reduction will be accomplished through retirements?
But please remember, Aberdeen does have the Ripken Stadium. This venture will NOT cost the city residents one cent (as sold during presentations by local politicians. Self supporting THEY said!) LMAO. Heck, what was the cost to city TAXPAYERS a few yrs ago, $500,000.00 to update maint. due to lack of use.
Sing Thong your witch is dead,
“Kick your dog” – you didn’t “win” man… echos of a punch drunk barroom brawler that just got his face kicked in. Too bad your shit has no barking brake. Hey, the log is in the flume even for your ugly ass – gab a parka and get a middle seat with the rest of us. It is going to be a bumpy ride no matter what side of politics you are on. If we keep fighting each other in the county, the state will really rub our faces in it. All I ever stated was that this was the feds fault and you wanted to blame it on your political enemies – total, unadulterated crap.
4,300 “projected” job losses between now and 2020. Math (old school): 4,300 divided by 5=’s: 860 jobs per yr INCLUDING military. Most will be through early retirements and buyouts. When’s the last time you seen a military uniform stationed on APG? One? Two? maybe?? Come on folks, use common sense and don’t listen to the politicians. OWE’Malley (and his sidekick Brown) said he/they/the state would have ALL infrastructure done PRIOR TO BRAC ending/being completed. Have ya been down Rt. 22 near Post lately in Aberdeen? Piss poor planning and “assumption” on THEIR part is costing the city residents via TAXES to maintain THEIR fantasy. See Ripken stadium. Same shit sold via the politician’s.
“Harford County development site” – has all these numbers up. But yes, you are right. APG looks like Mosul right after the Iraq army left and right before ISIS moved in – vacant, with shit built but never used.
But something tells me it will end up being a Honduran home away from home. Okay, start the thumbs downs.
Just remember folks. In the end, you can always rely on ALL forms of government to give the taxpayer accurate and correct information based on hired firms/study groups to conduct these studies then turning those numbers around to reflect “their” (the governments) perceived opinion/perception on how “great” the end result will be and the REVENUE generated by “their” perceived perception. Also it should be noted that most government studies and issued statement’s are always followed by; “and the REVENUE generated/projected by this …………. will ……… and this is what the taxpayers want.” Sound familiar?
Sure would be nice for Andy Harris and Dutch to show up so they could learn about issues affecting their constituents they represent down in DC.
Harford County should delay all school construction until after a decission is made on the fate of the 4300 jobs at APG. The potential loss will impact the number of students enrolled in the school system if their parents are transfered to other locations.