[CPEO-MEF] JPA working on Sept. 15 transfer of 4,500 acreage

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Alabama
THE ANNISTON STAR
JPA working on Sept. 15 transfer of 4,500 acreage
By Jessica Centers
08-19-2003

As the Anniston-Calhoun County Joint Powers Authority continues to
negotiate with Army lawyers over the transfer of a 4,500-acre portion of
ordnance-strewn land at McClellan, JPA officials said at a work session
Monday that a sign-over date had been set.

The signing ceremony will be Sept. 15, JPA officials said. With the land
will come money to clean up the first half of the sizeable tract.

"It looks like early transfer is going to happen," JPA Director Dan
Cleckler said.

The JPA says privatizing the environmental cleanup will be both quicker
and cheaper than waiting for the Army to finish it. Doing so would also
allow the JPA to develop areas as they are cleaned up rather than
waiting for the Army to transfer whole sections of land at once.

Cleckler said he is waiting for confirmation from the JPA’s attorneys
that the final documents are complete. Then the JPA, which is
responsible for redevelopment of the former Army base, will call a
special board meeting to approve the transfer.

The dollar amount has not been released, but Cleckler is expecting the
transfer to cost a significant sum — so large that the JPA is in the
process of hiring a media-relations consultant to ensure news outlets
understand the details of the transfer and the money’s purpose.

"It’s an issue with a lot of details," Cleckler said. "When the
announcement comes it’s going to be a large amount. We want to make sure
prior to that that [reporters understand] exactly what’s involved in
this early transfer."

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.annistonstar.com/news/2003/as-anniston-0819-0-3h18x0928.htm

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