Military Growth Task Force plan reaches production stage

TRENTON — A printing company now has the document with a plan for helping seven area counties’ civilian communities manage growth resulting from a Marine Corps buildup that has added thousands of people to the area in less than two years, with more than 40,000 ultimately expected.  

Each of the seven counties affected by the 11,477-person buildup at area military bases was represented at a Military Growth Task Force meeting in Trenton this week, said Mark Sutherland, a consultant on the plan and who Thursday moderated his first meeting as task force director.

“It’s in production now; We expect to get it late next week,” Sutherland said.

There will be about 250 hard copies of the five-inch-thick document and 150 digital copies of the plan, which outlines data and demographics supporting needs for education; housing; infrastructure; local government; medical, health, social services and child care; public safety and emergency services; communications; quality of life; transportation; and workforce. It will also be online at the task force Web site, nceastmgtf.org.

Sutherland said he briefed those attending the Thursday meeting on the strategy for implementing the plan that “calls for staff modification” and for “more, a different kind of office space than what is being used now.”

Staff members needed for the buildup include a person to handle communications, a position now advertised on the Web site, and a planner that the task force hopes will be one shared with the N.C. Eastern Region, Sutherland said.

“We continue to rely on consultant support” now to do that work, he said.

He said the task force is working with the federal Office of Economic Adjustment for as much as $2.5 million in federal money to support task force efforts in 2010 and 2011 to develop a strategy for implementing the plans have now been formalized.

The defense department made a site visit Sept. 2, and the task force has been given some assurance that it will get the money to continue work after January 2010.

Sutherland said the task force hopes to have a gathering soon to “recognize the hundreds of volunteers who contributed countless hours of work on the plan.”

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