New Willow Grove NAS Plan Released

Phillyburbs has a link to the newly released plan for the Willow Grove NAS. Called either "Joint Interagency Installation Implementation Plan for Willow Grove/Horsham" or "Preparation of Implementation Plan and Associated Reports in Connection with the Transision of NASJRB Willow Grove to a Joint Interagency Installation under Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Lease or License Arrangement," depending on where you look, the full report is available on the state's Department of Military and Veterans Affairs website.

I read the 12 page executive summary while at the orthodontist today. In the introduction we find:

Located in the heavily populated Northeast corridor, strategically located equidistant from the financial capital in New York and the political capital in Washington, DC, Willow Grove/Horsham JII is perfectly positioned to immediately provide emergency response and support to the largest population concentration in the country.

Another paragraph down the report states:

As a result of the BRAC process, DoD plans to close NASJRB Willow Grove by the fall of 2011. With its 8000 x 200 foot runway, Willow Grove/Horsham JII can support any size aircraft for regional, national, and international response. Additionally, the flight pattern into the JII is from the west and would not interfere with or be disrupted by civilian or other military flight patterns. Developing a facility fully dedicated to defense, homeland security, and emergency preparedness, unencumbered by conflicting priorities, would be unmatched anywhere else in the country.

The report states that the optimal plan would be to use the entire base footprint for the new mission. It also predicts that the JII would be self-sufficient within three years, self-sustaining within six and making a profit after seven. Of course there is fine print, as on page 9:

Revenue generation requires establishing a program for collection rents and leases from tenants; negotiating a reasonable fee for service rate structure for PaANG [PA Air National Guard] and other military units; and identifying and colelction all "pass through" expenses, such as electrical and telephone utilities, fuel oil, vehicle maintenance and other public works maintenance or service calls.

I also noticed, in the financial tables that while half of the predicted revenue numbers went up and half were static over the seven years on the chart, all of the operating expenses were static over the seven years, including administrative costs. This is mentioned in passing in the text and no doubt explained in detail in the full report (which I did not read).

According to the accompanying press release a public meeting will be held in Horsham later this month to answer questions. Personally I think this sounds like a fine idea, using the base for homeland security and emergency preparedness; I'm just always a little wary of very optimistic numbers. But, again, this sounds like a good plan.