By Eileen Buckley
Niagara Falls, NY – A massive letter writing campaign to keep the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station open is being described as a big success. Thousands of letters in support of the base have been written.
The letter writing campaign was led by the Niagara Falls Military Affairs Council. NIMAC spokesman Merrill Lane says more than 123,000 letters have been written. He says BRAC Commissioners will receive a report on the number of letters in support of the Falls base.
"We do have people in Washington, along with the Congressional delegation, that have checked with other bases. We are far ahead of anyone else as far as the amount of letters that have been sent in," Lane said.
NIMAC's letter witting goal was 100,000. But citizens are still encouraged to send letters until next week's vote. Lane says letters should now be mailed directly to the commission in Washington, DC. The BRAC Commission is expected to make a final decision on the Falls base when it votes next Thursday, August 25th.
Lane says some BRAC members have indicated that they've proven their case about the importance of the Falls Base -- home to the 914th Airlift and 107th Air Refueling Wings. Those leading the fight for the local reserve base include Republican Congressman Tom Reynolds. He says they've provided a great deal of information to BRAC including data that show the Air Force won't save money by shutting down the Falls base. Reynolds says more money would be spent to conduct an environmental clean-up.
"There are 865,000 gallon tanks up there that were not even put in the spread sheets for the cost of clean up. We outlined the estimates coming from the base at about $4 million. As we learned from the BRAC hearings last week, they only budgeted about a billion for environmental clean up, yet the history of the last several BRAC closings was some where around $3 billion," Reynolds explained.
Ten years ago, the BRAC Commission decided not to close the Falls base. Reynolds says since that time a number of things have been added to the local facility to enhance its military value including changes to the runway and fire station.