Shipyard Still in Danger of Closing
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2005- The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard remains in danger of closing, despite a productive meeting Portsmouth-area representatives had with Pentagon officials on Wednesday, said several people who attended the meeting.
“It was what we expected,” retired Navy Captain William McDonough, a former commander of the shipyard and spokesman for the Seacoast Shipyard Association, said of the meeting. “It’s gratifying that we were well received, and I can only hope the information moves up the line and the decision comes out favorably.”
The shipyard, which straddles the Maine-New Hampshire line, could be closed as part of the Defense Department’s Base Realignment and Closure process, which seeks to reduce the number of military facilities in the post-Cold War world. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will announce his decisions on base closings by May 16.
Others at the meeting were Portsmouth (N.H.) City Manager John Bohenko, Sanford (Maine) Town Manager Mark Green, Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce President Dick Ingram and Kennebunk Savings Bank President Joel Stevens.
On Tuesday, they met with members of the Maine and New Hampshire congressional delegations and their staffs, who support keeping the shipyard open, to determine the strongest arguments to make when they met with a deputy assistant Navy secretary and a deputy Defense undersecretary at the Pentagon on Wednesday.
Bohenko said he and his fellow area representatives focused on the “efficiency aspect” of the shipyard and argued that its location on the water and near an airport could lead to “synergies” in the future. The shipyard operates up to 50 percent faster and 50 percent cheaper than other yards, congressional staff members said at the Tuesday meeting.
Ingram said he was impressed with the conversations they had with the Pentagon officials, calling them more “substantive” than he expected. He called the meeting “necessary” and “worthwhile” because he and the other area representatives had different viewpoints from the lawmakers, who, he said, do not live in the area.
Still, he came away with “no better sense of whether the news will be good or bad,” he said. “Everyone’s playing their cards very close to the vest.”
Members of the congressional delegation were also pleased with the Pentagon meeting, according to a joint statement by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Rep. Tom Allen (D-Maine).
The meeting “was an opportunity for Pentagon leadership to hear firsthand from local business and community leaders the unique contributions offered by Portsmouth Shipyard, of which there are many,” the statement read. “We will continue to work with members of the delegation and the shipyard community to protect” the shipyard.
Pentagon officials will continue to gather data over the next several weeks, Bohenko said, meaning there is still time for concerned citizens to write to Rumsfeld to justify keeping the shipyard open.
“I think we need to continue to make our case and people need to continue to feel that we’re vulnerable and that we continue to need to espouse the importance of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard,” he said.
The congressional delegations also promised to continue to fight to keep the shipyard open.
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