Educational Segment for KAZU Radio

Aired 7. May 2005

New Development on the Former Fort Ord: The BRAC Process

I'm Carrie Mann.

You may have heard a lot about base closures in the news lately. That's because next week a new list will come out of bases all over the country that will be closed. In some cases the facility will be closed completely. In other cases its services will be moved to another location. In either case, no community wants the base near them to close. It means jobs will be lost and local revenue as well.

As we've seen in the case of Fort Ord - the closure and transition can be painful, but it also opens up abundant new possibility. Once the base is closed and the community stops resisting, they see the potential for economic growth, social enhancement and environmental restoration.

Why is the federal government closing all these bases? It is part of their BRAC process. BRAC stands for Base Realignment and Closure and is the Department of Defense's process for restructuring and consolidating resources and saving money.

And yes, there is a possibility that one of our local facilities could be on the list for closure. Communities always want to resist a closure, they are now starting to see the benefits of studying and planning for closure - just in case.

Learn more on the Sustainable Base Reuse Institute website at basereuse.org.

For KAZU, I'm Carrie Mann.

last updated: May 2005