Harford County fighting the battle of Fort Monmouth

Harford County (Map, News) - A battle is being fought over the men and women of Fort Monmouth, N.J., without a single shot being fired.

Harford County, Md., and Monmouth County, N.J., are trying to woo many of the thousands of highly educated, highly trained workers whose jobs are being moved to Aberdeen Proving Ground when the Base Closure and Realignment process shutters Fort Monmouth by 2011. Harford County officials want the workers to move south with the jobs, but Monmouth officials hope to create new jobs and prevent the exodus.

“The jobs are very technical in nature; with a lot of computer-related work,” said Monmouth County spokesman William Heine. “I have several friends of my own who are Fort employees, trying to decide if they want to move.”

After inviting defense contractors and employers to Harford for the LPGA tournament and several tours throughout the spring, Harford officials traveled to New Jersey in June to attend a “relocation fair” at the fort, hoping to convince the personnel of Maryland’s benefits.

“Our job is to put a good face on Maryland so those people have as smooth a transition as possible,” said James Richardson, director of Harford’s Office of Economic Development.

Only about 30 percent of those workers are anticipated to follow their jobs to Aberdeen, he said, but those who do will be important for bringing their experience with them, said OED Technology Manager Denise Carnaggio. Experienced, highly trained workers are necessary for “continuing the mission,” she said.

In a move to fill the other openings, Fort Monmouth officials are looking to Maryland colleges and universities for interns who could work at the base in New Jersey, then fill the positions in Maryland when the jobs are moved, Carnaggio said.

However, in the county and municipalities around Fort Monmouth, efforts are under way to bring in new jobs to replace the ones being moved to Maryland, beginning with an economic development summit being planned for Sept. 29.

The summit will bring together business, civic and government leaders to measure the impact of the job loss and brainstorm ways to prevent it from harming the local economy, Heine said. James Hughes, an economist from Rutgers University, will be the guest of honor at the summit.

The state and county have also formed a Base Economic Revitalization Committee to examine ways to re-use or preserve the base’s facilities, said Lilliane Burry, a Freeholder in the Monmouth County government.

“We find ourselves in a very unfortunate position. Fort Monmouth is an important part of the county, and we obviously don’t want to see them leave,” Burry said.

While not surrounded by as many defense subcontractors and manufacturers as Aberdeen and Edgewood, Monmouth should still have a strong telecommunications and research industry even after the base is closed, she said. Even if a large portion of the base’s workers move to Maryland, Burry said she hoped the steady flow of residents moving from nearby New York would help the county’s work force recover.

Monmouth’s work force:

» 5,500 civilian and military employees work at the 1,126-acre base, which hosts several military research and development organizations.

» Nearly 80 percent of Fort Monmouth’s staffers told the Army they wanted to stay in New Jersey, according to Monmouth County’s Office of Economic Development.

» The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development estimated that nearly 3,000 of the jobs moving from Fort Monmouth to Aberdeen will have a yearly salary higher than $80,000.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com

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