Aurora – The military base- closing commission added the 1,250- employee Defense Finance and Accounting Service to the list of possible base closures Tuesday, which could eliminate the last vestiges of working military at the old Lowry Air Force Base.
The move would effectively put an end to the military presence at the site, which was an Air Force base for 57 years before closing in 1994.
In May, the commission added the 438-employee Air Force Reserve Personnel Center onto the list of base- closing possibilities. Those people have been told they may move to Randolph Air Force Base in Texas.
The personnel center and the finance center, known as DFAS, share a three-story building on the corner of East First Avenue and Quebec Street. It is called the Buckley Annex because it is under the supervision of Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora.
Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer called the possible loss of the finance center unwelcome news.
“Obviously we would prefer this didn’t happen. More than 1,000 is a big chunk of people. That’s a big hit.”
The Base Closure and Realignment Commission added the annex along with a handful of other military facilities in seven other states and the nation’s capital to the hundreds that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wants to close or shrink.
New additions Tuesday included the Navy Broadway Complex in San Diego and the Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine. The Naval Master Jet Base at the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia and Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina would see cuts.
The panel will further analyze the impacts of the base closures before a proposal is submitted this fall to the president and Congress for final determination.
The addition of the Buckley Annex caused concern in Colorado’s congressional delegation.
“I am disappointed with the decision,” Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar said in a statement, “but I remain confident that the secretary of defense’s original analysis about Buckley Annex will win the day.”
Rep. Joel Hefley, a Colorado Springs Republican involved with the base-assessment process, said: “This is not the end of the line for the facility. The commission will be looking at the DFAS category as a whole to determine how many of these service sites should be closed or realigned.”
The Denver area has been hailed for turning base closures into success stories.
Lowry was first listed on the base closure list in 1991. By the time it closed, more than 7,000 jobs and $295 million in annual economic impact were lost. After hundreds of millions of dollars in redevelopment, Lowry is a $4 billion generator for the region.
The Fitzsimons Army post closed in 1999, eliminating 4,000 military and civilian jobs. Now it employs 5,300 people as a health and bioscience park and is expected to contribute more than $2 billion a year to the local economy.
“Success won’t happen overnight,” said Wendy Mitchell, president of the Aurora Economic Development Council. “But (the closure of the Buckley Annex) frees up more land for private sector development. We have shown a pattern of turning negatives into positives, as far as closures are concerned.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Jeremy Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1175 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
