Key military growth meeting in Trenton on Thursday

Most of the 21 members of the Military Growth Task Force are expected at a meeting in Trenton Thursday, the first with Mark Sutherland as director and one expected to finalize the draft Regional Growth Management Plan.

Representing consulting group Marstel-Day, Sutherland helped produce the draft for the task force that operates under the wing of North Carolina’s Eastern Region. It outlines plans to accommodate growth in a seven-county region around military bases that would bring an additional 11,477 military personnel, their dependents and service sector business people to the region as part of the Marine Corps "Grow the Force Initiative."

Most of that number, which was announced two years ago, have already been assigned to area bases but the total number anticipated with ancillary growth appears to have been revised from early numbers of as many as 71,000, to about 40,000 more recently. It does not include potential growth accompanying consolidation of a Marine anti-terrorism regiment at Cherry Point air station that was recently added as a possibility.

Scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at Jones County Civic Center on 832 N.C. 58 South in Trenton, Sutherland said, it is a “very important meeting as we move forward to finalizing the Regional Growth Management Plan and implementing our strategy.”

The task force mission is to coordinate and manage the changes that the influx of 40,000 new residents in Eastern North Carolina is creating in order to minimize negative effects and maximize opportunities to enhance the long-term viability of local military installations and quality of life for our citizens, he said.

Hundreds of members of the government and private sector have participated in gathering data and preparing the five-inch-thick draft on committees for communications, education, housing, infrastructure, local government, public safety, emergency services, quality of life, transportation, workforce and medical, health, social services and child care.

Sutherland, some members of North Carolina’s Eastern Region, and some area base and area county officials from region counties plan to participate next week in a conference on creating partnerships for defense communities in Orlando, Fla.

The delegation includes Aletha Magyaros of N.C. Eastern Region, Carteret County Manager John Langdon, Onslow County Planning Director Scott Shuford, Eastern Carolina Council Director Larry Moolenaar, and Duplin County Planner Randall Tyndall.

Other regional participants include Tyler Harris of Cherry Point air station Community Affairs and Liaisons;Havelock City Manager Jim Freeman; Joe Ramirez, Tim McCurry, and Jim Schliening of Camp Lejeune and New River air station; Onslow County Manager Jeff Hudson; Jacksonville City Manager Ron Massey; and Coastal Carolina Community College President Ron Lingle.

The conference objective is to provide states and communities with the information, skills and resources necessary to create and sustain effective partnerships with the military services, Sutherland said.

That agenda focuses on community needs like educational, transportation, health care, child care, compatible land use and workforce, many of the areas the management plan addresses. Implementing some of them will require capital project financing, which is also expected to be discussed.

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5666 or sbook@freedomenc.com.