At long last, Niagara Falls -- and all of Western New York, for that matter -- got a break.
Last week's decision by the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission to keep the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station open came as arguably the region's best economic news since, well, the last time it was spared a decade ago.
The story didn't break so much as ooze through the day Friday and into the evening. An anxious gathering of supporters, elected officials and media types crowded around a big-screen television in the usually empty terminal at Niagara Falls International Airport, trying to discern any hint of how things might go.
Most of the signals were promising.
The commission's removal of naval bases in Massachusetts and Maine from the closure list on Wednesday, along with its recommendation to not only keep an accounting facility in Rome, N.Y., open, but also add new jobs, demonstrated the panel's independence and willingness to break from the Pentagon's plan.
Early Friday, the votes to preserve Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota and delay the closing of New Mexico's Cannon Air Force Base until at least 2009 reconfirmed that the commissioners trusted the economic numbers provided by their own analysts more than the Pentagon's ambitious savings estimates.
Shortly after the commission's lunch recess of nearly three hours -- hey, it's good work if you can get it -- a briefly shown map provided the most clear-cut indication of what was to come.
The original plan submitted by the Pentagon indicated the intention to close the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station by omitting it completely. But when the map of the revised BRAC proposal flashed on the screen, it included a dot near the northwest corner of New York State.
"When I saw that dot at Niagara Falls that wasn't there before, it was a great relief," said Neil Nolf, the base's public affairs officer.
But things weren't finalized for another seven hours, when the commission voted on the proposal to keep both the 914th Airlift Wing of the U.S. Air Force Reserve and the 107th Refueling Wing of the New York State Air National Guard active.
Niagara County Legislature Chairman Bill Ross (C-Wheatfield) harkened back to his days coaching football at Niagara-Wheatfield High School to describe the emotions of the three-month struggle to keep the base open.
"It's like a tough football game -- you're really banging heads and don't know which way it's going to go, and then all of a sudden, you're in the end zone," Ross said.
The day's elongated nature did prevent, or at least postpone, the noxious scene that normally accompanies anything resembling a positive development in these parts -- a dozen or more elected officials elbowing each other for prime position behind a podium, desperately jockeying to remain within camera range.
Since none of the area's congressional delegation wanted to risk spending a day amongst the common folk only to be around if bad news came, that orgy of self-congratulation would have to wait until Monday afternoon.
For once, some of that credit is deserved. Representatives Tom Reynolds, a Republican, and Democrat Louise Slaughter took up the fight without a hint of partisanship. Sen. Hillary Clinton, topping prospective candidates for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, pushed in the same direction as Reynolds, one of the top fund-raisers for GOP congressional candidates.
On the state level, Assemblywoman Francine Del Monte and Sen. George Maziarz, who would normally over argue over the color of the sky, even set aside the blood feud over who gets to spend Niagara Falls' share of revenue from the Seneca Niagara Casino for long enough to address a common goal and secure funding to hire a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., well before the closure list was released.
But most of the praise goes to the ferocious save-the-base campaign spearheaded by the Niagara Military Affairs Council. Chairman Merrell Lane and John Cooper, the vice-chairman, helped start the organization the last time the Pentagon recommended closure. They used the lessons learned back then to demonstrate the region's support.
Their strategy paid off with more than 127,500 letters sent to the BRAC Commission by supporters from throughout the region, more than 20 percent of the total mail the panel got since the Pentagon's recommendations were announced in May. And thousands attended a series of three rallies -- at a Buffalo Bisons game, at the gates of the air base and at the University at Buffalo -- when commissioners visited the area in June.
"Everybody, and I mean everybody, came through," Ross said. "It was a great lesson of what can happen if everybody binds together for a common goal."
Even before the final vote, the euphoria was getting contagious. Some actually suggested that the cooperation forged by the threat of losing Niagara County's second-biggest employer might replace the rancor that normally dominates the political atmosphere.
"We shouldn't just pat ourselves on the back that we were able to keep the base open," said Niagara USA Chamber President Tom Kraus, who is attempting to kick-start that troubled organization following the disastrous regime of Bobby Newman. "We need to take this momentum and keep it rolling."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Aug. 30 2005 |