Giving Up the Fort: In 2005, a new round of closures sought by the Pentagon could sink the Navy Supply Corps School.
ANNISTON, Ala. - The sidewalks are no longer maintained; the grass is unkempt and overgrown.
On a calm Alabama morning, there is little more than abandoned barracks to suggest this area was once a part of Fort McClellan, an Army post in eastern Alabama.
Doors to the Frederick Barrack - named in honor of D.A. Frederick, a colonel who commanded the 22nd Infantry from Nov. 11, 1911, until April 24, 1914 - are locked. The blinds are drawn.
In the midst of the overgrown common area between the barracks lies a helicopter pad. The words "Welcome to Fort McClellan," painted on the pad are fading after years of abandonment and constant abuse by the sun.
Gone from Fort McClellan are the soldiers. The bustling military installation that stood here for more than 80 years is no more, and buildings that today are unoccupied are little more than an eerie reminder of the past.
Within walking distance of the empty barracks, some residents live. Houses that were once used by Fort McClellan's command corps have new occupants - families live there now. The yards are well-manicured, toys are scattered throughout some yards and cars are parked in the driveways.
"They're built to last," Donnie DiValentin says of her home on Buckner Circle on the former Fort McClellan. "They're durable; they're going to be here for a long time."
Ten years earlier, DiValentin's house was used by Fort McClellan's general. But when the military opted to close Fort McClellan as a part of the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, much of the installation's former 22,000 acres was transferred to a redevelopment authority for civilian use.
With another round of BRAC now under way, the Navy Supply Corps School in Athens could learn its fate as early as today, when the Pentagon is expected to release a list of bases it recommends should be closed. If identified as a prime base for closure, the school's land could be turned over to an authority similar to the one in Anniston and redeveloped for any number of uses.
The BRAC Commission - a nine-member federal panel that will review the Pentagon's recommended list of base closures and realignments - will deliver its list to President Bush, who must send his final recommendations to Congress by Nov. 7. Regardless of whether the Navy School can survive a fifth BRAC, its operations are sure to continue, even if somewhere else.
"The mission of the Navy Supply Corps School continues," said retired Navy Capt. George Huban, commander of the school from 1994-96. "There's nothing there that's going to get canceled or eliminated. We believe it can be done here cheaper, faster and smarter than anyplace else. ... It's not like we're eliminating any functions. They've got to be done. We're the only place it can currently be done."
What about Athens?
It's hard to say with any certainty what the Navy School's campus might be used for, should the military decide to close the base - the local government and a committee formed to keep the Navy School in Athens have no concrete plans for what to do if the school gets placed on the BRAC closure list.
Even Athens-Clarke County planners bank on the installation remaining in Athens.
The 58 acres of land the Navy School occupies near the intersection of Prince and Oglethorpe avenues in the Normaltown community is zoned for government use, and future land-use maps call for that zoning to remain. The area surrounding the school is a mixed bag of zoning, ranging from commercial to residential.
Each year, about 4,000 students pass through the Navy school, which provides supply, transportation and maintenance logistical training to sailors and Marines. The facility, which opened in 1954 and sits on a military site that dates to the Civil War, employs about 130 military personnel and more than 190 civilians and has an annual payroll of $8.7 million, according to the Georgia Military Affairs Coordinating Committee, a statewide panel that's also lobbying on behalf of military bases in Georgia.
"This is not an enrichment course," Huban said of the training students receive at the Navy School. "This is the essential joint-training needed to go right into the war fighting arena."
Should the military decide to close the school, the property will stay zoned for government use "until we get another request," said Rick Cowick, a senior planner with the Athens-Clarke Planning Department.
Athens-Clarke Mayor Heidi Davison on Monday said the county has no plan for how to reuse the property.
"We haven't begun to really think about possible uses," Davison said. "We haven't had any serious discussions."
From education to residential to retail, the land used by the Navy Supply Corps School could find its prime real-estate recycled for any number of uses.
Julian Jenkins, an architect whose office is in the former Fort McClellan Post Exchange, has one piece of advice for cities that are home to a military installation targeted for closure - begin thinking about redevelopment.
"When you've been identified (for closing), then get under way with the redevelopment process," Jenkins said. "Anniston did not do that. Anniston fought it. ... In five to 10 years from now, we'll look back like a lot of communities have and it becomes a blessing that the Army closed it. By beginning redevelopment now, they'll be way ahead of the process."
Redefining a base
Fort McClellan traces its origins to the Spanish-American War of the late 19th century, when soldiers used the area as an artillery firing range.
But it wasn't until July 18, 1917, that the Army established Camp McClellan - named in honor of Civil War Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, who served as general-in-chief of the U.S. Army in 1861-62. The 22,000-acre installation was redesignated as Fort McClellan on July 1, 1929, and housed the U.S. Army Military Police School and U.S. Army Chemical School.
Seventy years later, in 1989, Fort McClellan was first targeted by the Department of Defense for closure, though no action was taken on the recommendation. During BRAC rounds in 1991 and 1993, Fort McClellan was again targeted for closure, but both times, managed to escape.
In 1995, however, the installation did not survive BRAC, and a panel voted to close it.
Closing Fort McClellan was not a quick process. It took four years for the military to actually close the installation, and an official closing ceremony was held May 20, 1999.
Once closed, it took another four years before much of the property was transferred to the Anniston-Calhoun County Fort McClellan Development Joint Powers Authority, Anniston Mayor Chip Howell said.
The authority was established in 1997 by the Alabama legislature and charged with redeveloping Fort McClellan. An authority governing board is made up of members appointed by government bodies, such as the Anniston City Council.
The development authority today is redeveloping the former Fort McClellan for residential, commercial and industrial use.
"Developing a closed military base is not like developing any other piece of real estate in the world," said Miki Mahan Schneider, director of planning for the authority. "You've got to have patience, you've got to have vision and you've got to have faith because it's just a completely different world."
Tale of two cities
Sherri Sumners regularly speaks of the boll weevil that destroyed Alabama's cotton crop in the early 20th century. If ever there was a boll weevil for Anniston in the last decade, it was losing Fort McClellan.
"I think every community needs a boll weevil every now and then so that you do reinvent yourself, so that you do look for ways that you can diversify and ways that you can buffer yourself against economic changes," said Sumners, president of the Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce.
"It was a real shock to the community" to lose Fort McClellan, Sumners added. "We try not to laugh when we talk to other people and they go, 'But we have a unique function, and we're the only (base than can perform a certain function) in the military.' Well, we were the only live agent chemical weapon training facility in the world. ... Never say never."
Between 1980 and 2003, Calhoun County's population dropped about 6 percent. However, its unemployment rate has dropped from 7.2 percent in 1990 to 5.4 percent in 2004, and peaked at 9.1 percent in 1993, two years before the base was targeted for closure.
Before Fort McClellan closed, the city of Anniston brought in about $15 million in sales tax revenue each year, Mayor Howell said. After closing, sales-tax revenue dropped about $1 million annually, but has recovered to about $16 million each year today, Howell said. The revenue turnaround can be attributed to the Fort McClellan redevelopment and to new industries - including a Honda plant that opened in 2001 in nearby Lincoln, Ala. - that have moved into the area, Howell said.
While most government officials and residents say they would like to have kept Fort McClellan, there was little they could have done to save their base. And, if the same thing happens in Athens, there would be little that could be done to save the Navy Supply Corps School.
"Nobody likes to lose a military installation. Period," said Scott Barksdale, executive director of the Spirit of Anniston Program, a group supporting economic development in Anniston. "We've had a relationship with the military since the Spanish-American War.
"We didn't look at it as a negative," Barksdale said. "We looked at it as an opportunity to reuse and reincorporate that amount of land back into the city."
While renovations continue to some buildings at Fort McClellan, all 44 historic houses and 316 other houses sold to a developer who is now renovating them for reuse, Schneider said. The historic houses, which originally sold for about $165,000, now sell for between $225,000 and $300,000.
There is no clear consensus among residents of how Anniston fares today, roughly six years after Fort McClellan closed. Some residents say the city still suffers, while others say the impact of Fort McClellan's closing is not extreme.
"I don't see that much of a difference," said Brian Norton, a resident of nearby Choccolocco. "It's not like it went to the dumps.
"Yes, it hurt," Norton said. " But, it's America, we're going to rebuild. It's not like it made everybody mope around and say, 'We lost the fort.' "
Conversely, Gene Robinson, owner of Robinson Mercantile Western Auto and a candidate for mayor in 2004, says while not many soldiers shopped at his business, he has seen the trickle-down effects of Fort McClellan's closure.
"We've had (decreased) business since then," Robinson said. "In the past five years, in this location and downtown business in general ... business has fallen."
Many in Anniston point to an area known as Lenlock, a primarily retail area, located outside the main gates to the former Fort McClellan. Though the Lenlock area may be quieter than when the military was there, it is rebounding, some say.
"I think the most telling tale for Lenlock is Wal-Mart," Sumners said. "They had a presence there and there're doing so well in that location that they're doing something Wal-Mart never does. They're taking a regular store and expanding to a supercenter. They're not building a new one."
Everyone in Anniston points to new industry in the area, such as the Honda plant to show that the area is rebounding.
"It's building up," said Sebastian Floyd, who has lived in Anniston since 1984. "At first, the community was panicking because of job losses. You've got a bit more business opportunities now. It can only get better, I guess."
Published May 13, 2005, in the Athens Banner-Herald.