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BRAC envoys tout perks of life in North Alabama
Leaders to explain to Defense workers why it's good move
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
By PATRICIA C. McCARTER
Times Staff Writer patriciacm@htimes.com
ARLINGTON, Va. - The complimentary luggage tags say
it all.
"Pack your bags and come to Huntsville."
Of all the many souvenirs and door prizes awaiting
Department of Defense workers at the please-consider-moving-to-the-Tennessee-Valley
fair, the luggage tags seem the most symbolic of the message.
"We just want these people to know how
much we want them to come be with us," said Huntsville's anti-litter
guru Joy McKee.
McKee is one of several dozen envoys making the three-day
trip to tout North Alabama and southern Tennessee to DoD workers
whose jobs are moving to Redstone Arsenal through the Base Realignment
and Closure (BRAC) Commission.
The meetings are being held at the Sheraton National
Hotel in Arlington, and defense workers will be bused in from their
offices. There will be four meetings held over today and Wednesday.
Rows of displays that await 450 invited Washington,
D.C.-area Missile Defense Agency (MDA) workers promote housing,
schools and quality of life.
Mary Gwinnup is a BRAC transition coordinator with
MDA in Arlington, Va. Her job isn't moving to Huntsville, but her
job is to help defense workers move to Huntsville, if that's what
they want. If they don't, then her office will help them find jobs
elsewhere within the Defense Department.
"We want people to take their time, get all the
information they can, and then make up their minds," Gwinnup
said. "Don't make up your mind until you know what they have
to offer."
Gwinnup believes that if the affected workers go to
the fair, they'll give the move some serious thought. She mentioned
some of the Alabama people she's met so far "and they're the
nicest folks you could ever hope to meet."
"It's not that they're apprehensive about going
to Alabama as much as it is that they don't want to go anywhere,"
Gwinnup said. "I worked for the Naval Air Systems Command in
Crystal City (Va.) when it got moved to Maryland. People threw a
fit about that change.
"People just don't like change. That's all there
is to it. I was involved in three base closures, and people committed
suicide over it. Change is just tough on some people."
Maybe so, but Stephen Perkins is excited about the
chance he'll have to talk to people about a big change they'll have
if they decide to move to the Tennessee Valley. He's the executive
vice president of the Huntsville Area Board of Realtors and is armed
with the pleasant details of buying a house within easy commuting
distance of Redstone Arsenal.
A comparably sized house that would cost $250,000
in North Alabama would cost $700,000 in Northern Virginia, "and
it would be 35 years old with few amenities."
Because housing costs have gone up 72 percent over
the last three years in Northern Virginia, Perkins said many DoD
workers could sell their homes, make a huge profit and then pay
cash for a bigger, nicer, newer home in the Tennessee Valley - with
no tax consequences.
He added that the lot-size average is more than double
in the Huntsville area than Northern Virginia.
"These prices give families opportunities for
financial stability that they can only dream of (in Northern Virginia),"
Perkins said. "For those who choose to move, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime
chance. That's exciting to me.
"It's a fun story to tell. It's a good story
to tell. The only problem is making it real to them. The differential
is so huge, how do you show it in a credible way? It is almost unbelievable
how much more they'd get for their money."
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