Now is the time to make comments about Navy housing plan

As a Tinton Falls resident and chairman of Neighbors Opposed to Privatization at Earle (NOPE), I invite and encourage any citizens concerned about the U.S. Navy's plan to open base housing to civilians to attend our nonpartisan community organization's open house on Jan. 17.

 

Sessions are scheduled at the Tinton Falls borough hall from 9 a.m. to noon and at Trump National Golf Club in Colts Neck from 1 to 4 p.m.All are welcome to attend, and we encourage you in advance to visit our Web site for more background and details or to join our contingent: http://www.orgsites.com/nj/nope — even if you've attended our past events.

Since its formation in early 2008, NOPE has gathered some 1,500 signatures of Earle's neighbors in Colts Neck, Tinton Falls and other Monmouth County towns, and not only pressed elected local and state officials for support, but met with the assistant secretary of the Navy and the inspector general in Washington, D.C., to voice our concern about an ill-conceived and dated Navy housing plan that will compromise our security and devastate our local economies and schools — to the tune of at least $300 million.

As part of our continued outreach throughout the surrounding Earle communities, we encourage you to visit our open house and share your opinion as part of the official public record phase of the Navy's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), a 400-page document issued Dec. 16, available at www.laurelwoodeis.com. NOPE will address its questions and concerns, expose the DEIS document for the sham that it is, and provide laptop access, comment forms and letters for citizens to respond to the Navy by the extended Jan. 23 deadline.

The convergence of the security, financial, legal and environmental issues surrounding the entire issue is a recipe for disaster for our local communities. Particularly if you reside anywhere near (Naval Weapons Station) Earle or along Normandy Road, you had better be concerned, or at the least informed, about the Navy plan for Laurelwood and how it will impact your community.

In short, washing its hands of a poorly devised privatized housing contract with a Washington developer in the 1980s, our Navy is passing along an unfunded mandate on our local communities through 2040 (i.e., school funding, emergency services) and threatening our safety in an age of terrorism. The recent Fort Dix trial only reminds us that homegrown terrorism is real.

The Navy, as expressed in the DEIS, will move full steam ahead in letting this out-of-state developer rent the 300 homes (once used by military families stationed at this high-security and strategically significantweapons depot) to civilians on the open market by 2010. The Navy will construct a new, unimpeded access road to allow anyone to access the Laurelwood homes — deep within the base and just a few hundred yards up from the fully secure and armed main gate along Route 34 in Colts Neck. Ironically, this comes at the same time that Earle just received $8.1 million from the fed to enhance main gate security. This makes no sense.

The dangers of this plan are obvious and the Navy's actions are dumbfounding, and we encourage you to take a stand and join us at either open house on Jan. 17. This issue will not go away magically. NOPE will continue to press the Navy to exercise its legal right to void or buy out the Laurelwood contract, but we need you to make your voice heard and become involved in this important process. Time is running out. Now is the time to act.
Bill Holobowski
Chairman
Neighbors Opposed to
Privatization at Earle