[CPEO-MEF] "A slow recovery after base closure, " Chanute Air Force Base (IL)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

A slow recovery after base closure: Part 1 of a five-part series


By BRENDAN QUEALY

Rantoul Press (IL)
October 1, 2013



Traumatic. Devastating. Eerie. As if a family member had died.

That is how many of Rantoulâs residents described the feeling within  
the town after the Chanute Air Force Base closed 20 years ago on  
Sept. 30, 1993.

"There was a philosophy that Chanute would always be here, and no one  
ever believed that it would be closed," current Mayor Chuck Smith  
said. "And when it did, it was like rats abandoning a sinking ship. I  
mean everybody left. The military stores. The pawn shops. Housing  
went down. Values dropped. It was just an economic and chaotic mess  
that we had to clean up."

Two decades have passed, and the cleanup is still in progress. At the  
time of the closure, Rantoul lost more than half of its population  
and with it more than $100 million in commercial spending. Smith said  
losing Chanute after 76 years was the "biggest thing to happen in the  
history of this community" and wonders if any economy can overcome  
that level of loss.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.rantoulpress.com/news/special-reports/2013-10-01/slow- 
recovery-after-base-closure-part-1-five-part-series.html

--

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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