[CPEO-MEF] REUSE: Loring Air Force Base (ME)

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

A Maine Town's Long Recovery After Losing Loring AFB

By BRUCE WATSON
Daily Finance
August 19, 2010


The Department of Defense's Base Closure and Realignment Commission 
(BRAC) plans to close 20 military bases across the country by Sept. 15, 
2011. Once a military facility closes, the ripple effect is felt 
throughout the surrounding communities: families lose neighbors, 
businesses lose customers and workers lose jobs. In this series of 
stories, Daily Finance looks at how closures have affected communities 
in the past, and at what some military families and the businesses that 
cater to them plan to do once their base closes.

Located less than five miles from the Canadian border, the small town of 
Limestone, Maine, is home to roughly 2,000 people, most of whom work in 
agriculture, forestry or at one of a handful of new businesses that now 
call the town home. In the words of local resident Carl Flora, Limestone 
-- and the rest of Aroostook County -- "has always had a reputation for 
pulling together. We realize that, if we are going to survive, we need 
to work together."

That sense of community was put to the test on Sept. 30, 1994, when 
nearby Loring Air Force Base closed. One of America's closest bases to 
the Soviet Union, it was the second-largest airfield in the Strategic 
Air Command and a central part of Cold War strategy. By 1991, more than 
4,500 active-duty military personnel were stationed at Loring. Including 
families, it was home to more than 9,000 people. It also employed over 
1,000 civilian workers from the surrounding area.


...

For the entire article, see
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/real-estate/limestone-maines-long-road-to-recovery-after-the-loss-of-loring/19592792/

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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