Hanscom Area Town Selectmen - HATS
Committee Meeting Minutes of September 25, 2003
7:30 p.m., Lincoln Town Offices
In Attendance: Selectmen Sara Mattes (Lincoln) - Chairman, Jeanne Krieger (Lexington), and Anne Shapiro (Concord). Richard Canale and Julian Bussgang - Environmental Subcommittee (ESC). Sara Arnold and Richard Walsh – Massport. Carolyn Weaver recorded the minutes.
Absent: Sheldon Moll, Bedford Selectman, was attending a housing development meeting involving Massport in Bedford.
The meeting was called to order at 7:33 pm.
Introduction and Minutes – Ms. Mattes welcomed everyone and introductions were made around the room. The minutes of July 24, 2003 were tabled until the next meeting as decided by the chair.
MassDevelopment – Alan Macdonald of MassDevelopment, the state’s economic development authority, talked about the “Build Hanscom Alliance” (BHA) campaign and explained the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. See attached “BRAC 2005 Timeline” and “BRAC 2005 Commonwealth Strategy”. The BRAC is a process that the Dept. of Defense (DoD) goes through periodically as a cost cutting measure. The DoD closes installations around the country to save money on installation management costs so they can rechannel funds into military equipment and operations. Sen. Kennedy designated MassDevelopment as the lead organization coordinating the state’s effort to defend the remaining installations through the base closure process.
Hanscom must undergo major changes in order to stay open. MassDevelopment is working with the Air Force to help them explore ways to reduce costs and transform the base to achieve improved efficiencies and support DoD objectives. Hanscom could be chosen as joint base for all services in the Armed Forces. Transformation of the base does not imply a dramatic expansion, but rather utilizing resources and capabilities of the region more effectively.
MassDevelopment considers local support critical in working with the “Build Hanscom Alliance” (BHA) to keep the base open. Local effort does not necessarily save a base, but the lack thereof makes it much easier to close.
To locally support the BHA efforts: Develop regional alliance to show clear support of Hanscom and the military.
Develop local alliance to work with MassDevelopment and the BHA.
Clarify that opposition to FedEx and expansion of the civilian airport is NOT opposition to Hanscom or the military.
Take advantage of the resources of the greater Boston area.
Send delegation of local political leaders to Wash DC to emphasize the need to change the criteria for how Research and Development installations like Hanscom are evaluated.
The main objective is to transform Hanscom into a joint capabilities installation that will result in improved command and control systems for all military services. All parties present at the meeting seemed supportive of the base transformation. It was noted that expansion will need to be accomplished in a manner acceptable to all local and state stakeholders. Ms. Mattes invited Mr. Macdonald to return to HATS on a regular basis to update the group and to speak more specifically on local efforts to support the BHA.
FESPR Analysis – Mr. Canale reported that the FESPR Certificate was issued on August 14, 2003. The Secretary recommended that members of HATS, the ESC and the MEPA Office work together to decide on issues that will need to be addressed for the 2005 ESPR and to improve the review process in the future. See attached “Draft Analysis of the Final 2000 L. G. Hanscom Field FESPR Certificate Dated Aug. 14”. Ms. Mattes asked HATS members to consider their continued level of review in light of the value yielded from the report. In response, Ms. Krieger stated there is a need to assess the impacts of growth at Hanscom and we should take advantage of the opportunity to influence the methodology. Ms. Shapiro added the 2005 ESPR needs to consider growth of the base as well as the
civilian airport.
HFAC Report – FedEx representatives did not attend the August HFAC meeting, as expected, to make a presentation on possible operations out of Hanscom. They intend to explore other options for now, and will contact HFAC if and when they decide to resume the process. Mr. Enrich has been assured that HFAC will have at least a 2 month window to gather information and advise Massport before they would meet with FedEx again to make a decision.
HFAC is in the process of evaluating the expanding range of de-icing materials. They expect to have enough information to make recommendations, if any, by their meeting in October.
Development projects – The Vegetation Management Plan is expected to be put into place this winter. An environmental review will need to be done before the runway safety project can begin. The Hangar One project is for 40,000 sf of hangar and office space. The RFP for the MIT Hangar calls for 40-60,000 sf and the Pine Hill site will be 10-20,000 sf of hangar space.
The DRI needs to be looking at the Princeton project in Bedford, a hostile 40B housing project adjacent to the base, property that could be utilized in base expansion. It was noted that the DRI has not yet met to begin reviewing this project.
Massport is not supportive of the Princeton project because it will limit potential land utilization for projects like base expansion. The public is generally unaware that Massport could use designated surrounding land to expand the base for military R&D purposes.
Addendum to “Hanscom at the Crossroads” – The Addendum needs to be approved by Selectmen in Concord, Lincoln and Bedford prior to coming before HATS. Lexington has already adopted the addendum, in part because of the impact FedEx could have on the BRAC process. Any increased commercial expansion of the civilian airport will consume space that would otherwise be available for military R&D activities.
Lincoln Selectmen will review the document at their next meeting and will likely approve the amendment. Bedford and Concord need to consider the addendum for approval at their next meetings.
Once the four HATS towns have adopted it, the other Towns that originally signed the document should review and sign the addendum. Selectmen from Acton, Bedford, Carlisle, Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, and Wayland, City officials from Waltham and Woburn, State senators and representatives and citizen groups signed the original document.
Air Show – The next Air Show will be in 2005.
Next meeting - Colonel Jones will present the HAFB Master Plan.
Meeting adjourned at 9:10 pm.
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