By Jim Haley
Herald Writer
Ancient barges used to house maintenance crews and machinery at Naval Station Everett someday soon will be a thing of the past.
A defense bill signed last week by President Bush contains more than $6.8 million to convert part of an underused warehouse at the naval station to a modern maintenance facility, said U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash.
Nearly another $14 million is in the bill for support and training facilities at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, Larsen said.
"This is great news for the men and women who are stationed in the Northwest," Larsen said in a statement. They are "committed to serving our country. This bill is away for Congress to show its commitment to them."
The World War II-era barges have been a sore point at the Everett naval station since its inception.
To reduce costs of building the naval station in the 1990s, the Navy didn’t include a modern maintenance facility. Instead a couple old barges were brought in and tied to a wharf to serve as an operations base for maintenance crews.
Capt. Daniel Squires, naval station commanding officer, said it’s likely the construction will start next summer and take between nine months and a year.
Larsen and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., battled to secure money for the Everett and Whidbey facilities. Navy officials in Everett long have been lobbying congressional delegates to replace the barges.
The barges not only reduce the ability of crews to do their work on the ships assigned to the base, but they also have unsafe working conditions, Larsen said. In addition, during heavy weather, there are lost workdays because they are too unstable, he added.
In addition, much of the crew members’ time was spent maintaining the old barges instead of the ships on which they are supposed to work, officials said.
Instead of a brand new building, the interior of a large warehouse structure will be modified to house the maintenance facility, Squires said. Because of the cost of operation and not needing to maintain the barges, the expenditure will soon pay for itself, Squires said in an interview.
"This is not pork barrel. This is saving money," Squires said.
At Whidbey, the Military Construction Appropriations Act for next year contains: $3.34 million for a Whidbey P-3 airplane support facility; $3.9 million for a new control tower; and $6.6 million for an air crew survival training facility.
Larsen is a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447
or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.
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