School bond: What if the Navy leaves?

Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, January 29, 2003

I will be voting no on the high school bond issue and am hopeful that the majority of the citizenry of Oak Harbor do the same. We are taxed enough, and some are probably being taxed out of the community.

True, the high school does need some updates to be considered a modernized facility. However, part of the reasoning behind the proposed reconstruction is to enlarge the size of the high school to decrease class sizes and accommodate forecasted population growth that may or may not occur.

Currently, students from Navy families make up a great majority of all our schools’ population. Have any of our school administrators looked at the possibility of Whidbey Island Naval Air Station being chosen as one of the bases to be closed during the next base closure hearings? Everyone knows that aging EA-6B’s and P-3’s will be phased out over the next decade. The last information that I read on a possible replacement for the EA-6B was tests being conducted on the new FA-18 which was meeting and exceeding all expectations. After visiting Lemoore, Calif., Christmas 2001, I know there is a long range plan for that base. Lemoore has increased its on base housing four fold and has plans to erect seven new hangars each holding three more squadrons. Ask yourselves how many squadrons are located here. Also ask yourselves, if the base does close and there is a mass exodus of military personnel and their families, what will become of the new now larger high school and its empty class rooms? If the EA-6B is replaced by the FA-18, it makes economic sense to the government to have all their like aircraft located at one base. As far as the P-3 is concerned, we know that they are antiquated and need replacing, but the only thing that has been in the media is that the government had contemplated using modified 737’s to replace the P-3’s. If the military personnel associated with the EA-6B’s are moved to NAS Lemoore to maintain and fly FA-18’s, I cannot see the base remaining open for 4 VP and 1 VQ squadron.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe we all should pay our fair share of taxes, but enough is enough!

Keith Glass,

Oak Harbor