Total eliminated labor force is only about two-tenths of one percent (.2%) of the metropolitan labor force. Increased incentives for early retirement from the Federal service have eased the impact since 178 personnel retired on 30 June. Normal economic growth should provide a wide range of employment opportunity in the civilian sector of the area economy. Much effort has been made to place affected employees in other government positions. PHOENIXVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA Community Location The United States Army Valley Forge General Hospital is located about one mile west of the Borough of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania (1970 population 14, 823), in northern Chester County (1970 population 278, 311), approximately 26 miles northwest of Philadelphia. DoD Impact The hospital will be closed by July 1974. The Army Medical Materiel Agency, with 27 military positions and 98 civilian positions, including an associated Air Force unit, will be relocated to Fort Detrick, Maryland, and 298 military positions and 347 civilian positions will be relocated to other Army hospitals and activities. A total of 221 military positions and 490 civilian positions will be reduced. Twenty civilian personnel will remain as a caretaker force until December 1974. Real property determined to be excess to Department of Defense requirements will be reported to the General Services Administration for disposal. EAC Involvement At the request of Mayor Joseph E. Dougherty of Phoenixville, two staff members of EAC attended a general meeting of community leaders from the five immediately affected local governments: Phoenixville Borough, Schuylkill Township, Charlestown Township, Pikeland Township, and Chester County. State Senator John Stouffer attended the meeting, representing the State of Pennsylvania. Representatives of GSA, HEW, Army and EDA accompanied the EAC staff members to the meeting. This visit confirmed the need for EAC assistance. EAC Program It is too soon to establish definitely and completely all aspects of EAC's program for helping the Phoenixville community deal with the impact of the hospital closure. However, the major outline and objectives of that program can be stated preliminarily as follows: The first objective of EAC's assistance program will be to • The second objective will be to minimize the turnover in housing as a result of the closure. Achievement of the first objective, of course, will be crucial to achieving this second objective. Assuming that at least half of the hospital's present military personnel - and that most of the civilian employees own their own residences, there could be a turnover in as many as 500 homes in the Phoenixville community unless alternate employment can be found in the vicinity for the approximately 380 civilian employees of the hospital who now reside in the community. This represents about 10% of the Phoenixville community's total housing stock at present and could seriously overload the local housing market. The third objective will be to find a way to ameliorate the loss of Federal special impact school aid funds. The local school system now receives approximately $50,000 annually from this program for approximately 290 dependent students. • The fourth objective will be to ensure that the closure does not result in an overload on local hospitals and other medical facilities as a result of retirees and their dependents living in the vicinity who now use the Valley Forge General Hospital facilities. Disposition of DoD Property Pursuant to Section 2662, Title 10, United States Code, the Department of the Army has submitted a disposal report to the Armed Services Committee of the Congress which provides for the excessing of the installation. Assuming no objection to the report on the part of the Congress, the excess land and buildings will be disposed of in accordance with the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended. At this point, the prognosis for successfully converting this hospital facility to a productive civilian use or uses is good. The need for additional medical and medically related facilities in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Region, with its population of almost five million people, is large; and even though the Valley Forge General Hospital facility is obsolete, there should be no major difficulty in securing alternate civilian use for it. Moreover, if necessary, the property can be divided among at least three separate uses: the medical facility itself, the golf course for recreational use, and a portion of the vacant land for commercial and/or light industrial uses. In addition, the economy of Phoenixville and neighboring areas is very healthy. Unemployment is very low--only 2. 3% of Phoenixville's labor force is currently unemployed, and the unemployment rate of neighboring areas is comparable. This indicates that the dislocations caused by the closure very likely will be quickly assimilated. Current Status As a result of the general meeting of community leaders from the five immediately affected local governments on May 17, 1973, a community leadership committee has been established to work with EAC on the re-use of the hospital facility. This committee includes representatives from the five local jurisdictions, the Board of Education and the State of Pennsylvania. It has met several times and is considering a number of suggestions for re-use of the facility including educational, health, recreational, social service and light industrial uses. EAC has scheduled a reconnaissance team visit to the facility and the Phoenixville community for the week of July 23, 1973. During that visit the team will meet with the leadership committee at its next regular meeting, scheduled for July 26, 1973, to plan for converting the installation to civilian use and to coordinate the conversion plan with the closure action. The Economic Development Administration recently provided a re-use plan for the hospital. Community Location Aguadilla is the principal city in northwestern Puerto Rico. It is located 82 miles due west of the capital city of San Juan, 52 miles northwest of Puerto Rico's second city of Ponce, and 26 miles north of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico's third most important city. Other cities in the Aguadilla area, affected in varying degrees by the closure of Ramey Air Force Base, are Aguada, Isabela, Moca, Rincon, and San Sebastian. DoD Impact The closure of Ramey Air Force Base, scheduled for the end of July 1973, will dislocate 1,836 military and 624 civilian positions and will produce estimated annual savings to the Air Force of approximately $21.1 million. The closure action is a follow-up to the realignment announced in March 1971 and effective at the end of June 1971. At that time, conversion of the base from a SAC to a MAC operation caused a reduction of 2,050 military personnel and 85 civilians. Since the 1971 Air Force action, unemployment in the Aguadilla-Aguada labor market area has risen to 30%. EAC Involvement The Economic Adjustment Committee has been involved with the defense impact in the Aguadilla area since August 1971, when representatives of the Office of Economic Adjustment conducted a reconnaissance visit. Follow-up EAC team visits occurred in November 1971, June 1972 and May 1973, and a number of conferences have been held with Commonwealth of Puerto Rico officials in Washington concerning the Aguadilla problem. EAC Program The March 1971 realignment announcement also provided for the opening up of Ramey Air Force Base to civil aviation under a joint-use |