BARKING SANDS — The business of keeping the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility in business has taken on a life of its own, a crusade not unlike efforts to promote tourism to the island, and in a style being
BARKING SANDS — The business of keeping the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range
Facility in business has taken on a life of its own, a crusade not unlike
efforts to promote tourism to the island, and in a style being copied by other
communities dependent on testing-and-evaluation facilities like
PMRF.
Toward that end, Kaua’i, last weekend, hosted an influential,
bipartisan pair of U.S. senators—Sen. Ted Stevens, Republican chair of the
powerful Appropriations Committee and its Subcommittee on Defense;
and
Hawaii Sen. Dan Inouye, second-ranking Democrat on the Appropriations
Committee.
Over the past several years, Inouye and Stevens have traded the
chairmanship of the Committees Subcommittee on Defense, depending on which
party controls the Senate, and have secured for PMRF since 1994 some $335
million in federal money, helping to make it the primary test range for the
Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (TBMD) program.
Because military
installations and active-duty military personnel are not allowed to promote
specific bases as places to perform testing-and-evaluation (T&E) work and
related functions, such efforts are left to the private sector.
On Kaua’i,
the Kauai Economic Development Board (KEDB) has taken on that role. KEDB
representatives court military and civilian entities, mainly in and around
Washington, D.C., said KEDB spokesman Gary Baldwin.
“The pitch for PMRF is
enhanced by the fact that the beauty of the island is also on display. If we
can’t get them to come here for the base, maybe we can get them to come for a
vacation,” Baldwin said.
PMRF’s location on the dry side of the island
(with 360 days of sunshine a year), combined with its low-traffic ocean and air
corridors, as well as the fact that its the only place in the world with
testing and tracking capabilities which extend from the bottom of the ocean to
outer space, make the base an appealing high-tech locale.
PMRF has already
helped create over 1,000 jobs on and off the base, and over the next several
years as more civilian contractors expand or open up operations here, the range
is expected to fuel the creation of at least 300 more
new jobs, Baldwin
said.
KEDB was the first civilian entity to work to lure high-tech
military and civilian contractors to PMRF, Baldwin said.
Now, potentially
competing T&E bases — mainly in California and Arizona — have similar
civilian entities going to places like the Navy League Sea Air Exposition, a
three-day gathering expected to draw 15,000 people in Washington, D.C. later
this year.
The civilian effort at drawing more military and civilian
customers to PMRF is as much about economic development and diversification as
it is about keeping the islands best and brightest young people here, or giving
them high-quality jobs to return to after they finish college, Baldwin
said.
The economic impacts are large, with PMRF contributing $118 million
to the island economy on an annual basis, and another $31 million in visitor
expenditures a year generated as civilian contractor employees bring family and
friends to enjoy the island, he said.
Luring high-tech businesses to Kaua’i
requires high-tech approaches. This year, KEDB will produce a compact disc
(CD), and a DVD format in 2001, outlining reasons firms should consider opening
operations here.
The CD will be sent to top prospects, Baldwin
said
During their visit, the senators were asked to do what they can to
encourage Gov. Ben Cayetano to release the $2 million appropriated by the state
Legislature for phase two of the West Kauai Technology & Visitors Center in
Waimea.
The senators were advised that the $2 million, secured through the
efforts of state Rep. Bertha Kawakami and others, is currently in Cayetanos
office awaiting disposition.
Four defense contractors have committed to
moving into phase two of the tech center as soon as it is constructed. They
include Northrop Grumman, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln
Laboratory and Lockheed Martin (the worlds largest defense contractor and
builder of the F-16 and F-22 fighter jets and C-130J transport plane).
Phase three, which the KEDB is hoping to build with $2.5 million in
federal funds, is anticipated to draw tenants like the Boeing Corporation and
the federal Office of Naval Research.
While on the island, Inouye and
Stevens also visited CEATECH’s shrimp farm in Kekaha.
