LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas National Guard is considering closing several rural armories because of their low troop levels and in anticipation of budget cuts as part of a long range plan that is similar to the Pentagon’s consolidation of units at joint bases.
The National Guard’s proposal has the affected cities worried about losing quick access to guardsmen and equipment during natural disasters, and the financial burden if the buildings become the cities’ to maintain.
The six armories in question are among the state’s most rural and isolated. They are at De Queen, Helena-West Helena, Forrest City, Marked Tree, Perryville and Rector. Maj. Gen. Bill Wofford, Arkansas’ adjutant general, met with city leaders in each location last week.
“Nothing has been determined,” Wofford cautioned in an interview. “The [command] staff has looked at demographics, trends, recruiting and are trying to come up with cost-saving ideas. Most of it is based on demographics we’ve looked at.”
On Friday, however, Wofford refused to release any of that data and said he did not know the current number of troops who drill at the six armories, only that they all have fewer than 50 soldiers each on their books.
“You have to have a certain number of soldiers drilling in an armory to make it cost-effective,” Wofford said in a phone interview Tuesday. “This is a business decision we have to look at. It’s not personal.”
Federal funding is, in part, based on troop size. At least 50 soldiers need to be assigned to an armory to take in enough funding to cover operating costs, according to National Guard Bureau mandates.
Wofford said Gov. Mike Beebe has the final say on shuttering armories, but he added that he had been given the job of developing a proposal on which locations to close. The current list of possible closures is based solely on recruiting numbers, Wofford said Friday, adding that additional data are needed before a decision can be made.
“If we don’t have the full picture, we’re going to make the wrong decision,” he said. “That’s where we are right now. We’re still looking at the numbers.”
Wofford expects a decision to be made by February.
The proposal has some community leaders worried about the long-term impact.
“What it is is just another nail in the coffin for rural communities,” said Mayor Wayne Nichols of Marked Tree. “The Arkansas Delta is scrambling to hold on. We’re sitting on the New Madrid fault. There is no way we can get out with the bridges out if it hits. We would be totally isolated and devastated.”
Marked Tree was identified by National Guard and emergency-response leaders during an earthquakeresponse planning session last year as one of many locations in the Delta that would be cut off from the rest of the state in the event of a major earthquake on the New Madrid fault. All roads to the town rely on bridges that are not made to withstand earthquakes.
Nichols said, “We would be an island.”
Wofford said emergency response will be a factor in the decision of whether an armory is closed.
“We may very well keep an armory open not because it makes good business sense but because it is good for the community or environment in that location,” Wofford said.
Nichols said the town would also feel an economic impact from closing an armory. The soldiers driving in from other areas to drill spend money at restaurants and gas stations and grocery stores. “Every penny helps,” he said.
Mayor Billy Ray McKelvy of De Queen agreed that the money spent by soldiers on drill weekends contributes to the city’s economy. Losing that business would be felt, he said. If the De Queen armory closes, those soldierswill drill at Mena, 50 miles away. He offered to help recruit for the Guard, if it would help keep the armory open.
“They told us that if it closed, they would give it [the building] to the city. The city donated the land for the armory in 1964,” McKelvy said. “We’re trying to think of what uses we’d have for it. Even if it sat empty, we’d have to pay to keep it up and insure it and things.”
Perryville’s armory would revert to the Perryville School District, Wofford said.
He added that the city had no objections to closing that armory. None of the soldiers who drill there live in Perry County; they all commute. Calls to the Perryville mayor, as well as to the mayors of Rector, Helena-West Helena and Forrest City, were not returned.
The idea of consolidating units in shared armories stemmed from a 2005 federal study that resulted in the establishment of joint Army Reserve/Army National Guard armories across the nation and the combining of several active-duty Air Force and Army bases.
The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission consolidated several active-duty bases across the nation and called for the creation of joint National Guard and Reserve centers and the shuttering of 200 old armories in all 50 states. In Arkansas, the commission ordered 11 National Guard armories to close and be replaced by Joint Reserve Centers in Highfill, Barling, Hot Springs, Camden, Arkadelphia, Pine Bluff, El Dorado and Jonesboro.
Wofford’s current proposal is purely a state plan. While it is modeled on the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission’s actions, it is not part of that federal mandate.
The state plan, if adopted, would move the Rector unit 50 miles west to the Walnut Ridge armory; the Forrest City unit 82 miles northwest to Beebe; the Marked Tree unit 20 miles west to Harrisburg; the Helena-West Helena unit 64 miles west to Stuttgart; the De Queen unit 50 miles north to Mena; and the Perryville unit 15 miles north to Morrilton.
Many soldiers already drive from out of town to drill at the armories being considered for closure, Wofford said. Guardsmen are neither paid mileage nor per-diem expenses for driving to drill. Wofford said he expects to look at future armory closings as part of a 20-year plan to improve efficiency across the Arkansas National Guard.
The bottom line, Wofford said, is that “we need some help getting people to join the guard in these areas.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/30/2011