BRAC Base Closings

[kitten44505]

The folks that have worked so hard to save our base have been wise in pointing out that until the final list has been issued and signed by the President, in September, we all need to keep up our efforts, because the political process has begun, and there will no doubt be efforts made to try to get our base in a district that is loosing theirs, such as Pittsburgh.

In the process it behooves every single member of this group to send a short letter to both Congressman Ryan, and our two Senators thanking them for their efforts.

All three have web sites and by going to the House of Representatives web site you can link to Congressman Ryans web site, and by going to the Senate web site you can link to DeWine and Voinovich's web site.

Don't say you don't have the time either, because it only takes a few moments of your time, and the more they receive, the more they will be willing to do in the future.

[kitten44505]

ADD

The Youngstown Base may also get the Pittsburgh Air Reserve Medical Squadron since the base they are stationed at is on the closed list, but at this point this is still a "MAY" issue.

Needless to say that Pennsylvania officials will fight to keep their base open, but as Congressman Ryan pointed out, it is easier to keep a base off the closure list than to get a base on the closure list off the list.

[kitten44505]

DON'T CONFUSE US WITH THE TRUTH

This morning Dan Rivers went out of his way to try to drive a wedge into the local scene by trying to imply that Congressman Ryan and the others who made the BRAC announcement deliberately excluded Mayor McKelvey from the announcement, and even after he was corrected he flatly refused to drop the subject.

SHAME ON YOU MR. RIVERS. YOU CERTAINLY DID YOURSELF NO CREDIT, BUT GAVE US REASON TO QUESTION YOUR CREDIBILITY.

[kitten44505]

YOUNGSTOWN TO GET POSITIONS CURRENTLY STATIONED AT PITTSBURGH

[kitten44505]

IT'S OFFICIAL

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OUR RESERVE AIR BASE WILL STAY OPEN

GREAT WORK TO ALL INVOLVED

[kitten44505]

FLASH -- IMMEDIATE URGENT -- FLASH

YOUNGSTOWN AIR BASE NOT ON BRAC LIST

BASE MAY GAIN IN NUMBER OF NEW JOBS

MORE TO COME

[ytowner]

We escaped closin in the early 90s. I am praying like I have never had before it doesn't close!

[kitten44505]

Tomorrow the BRAC Commission's recommendations will be released, and as everyone knows the local Air Base is at risk of being among those to be closed.

If this happens, the impact upon the valley will be severe to the extreme, with millions of dollars being taken away.

If this happens, many of the plans that we have been placing our hopes on will be brought to an end, and our already hard hit communities will have to scramble to try to make due with less.

The time has come therefore for all of us to make up our minds that if we loose our air base that we are going to have to set aside our grand schemes and start thinking about how we can soften the economic blow to our valley.

We are also going to have to set aside our pride and start taking a serious look at regionalization in order to eleminate the deplication of services.

Once the base is closed, there will be no chance of it ever reopening, so lets see just how we can begin benefiting our community by more volunteerism and less depending on government funds.