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September 09, 2008 ·San Antonio was considered a winner in the high stakes sweepstakes known as BRAC. That stands for the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, which met in 2005 to downsize the number of U.S. military bases. Because of BRAC, many cities lost military installations, and of course jobs. San Antonio will gain more than 10,000 military personnel and three local bases are expanding with $2 billion worth of construction projects.
Workers at Fort Sam Houston are building the Joint Center of Excellence for Battlefield Health and Trauma Research, an addition to Brooke Army Medical Center.
One of the goals is to transform Brooke Army Medical Center into the primary in-patient military medical facility. Ultimately all enlisted combat medics will be trained at Fort Sam Houston on the grounds of a brand new campus. Major General George W. Weightman is in charge of Army medical research.
“Between now and 2011 this military community will have 37 different construction projects here at Fort Sam Houston – 14 at Lackland and eight at Randolph Air Force Base,” said Weightman.
Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland will suspend its role as one of the city’s level one trauma centers and become the primary out-patient clinic for the armed forces. Randy Holman is executive director of the Joint Program Management office with the Army Corp of Engineers. He says Brooke Army Medical Center will continue to fulfill its trauma medicine mission – even during its expansion.
“We will also maintain all of our operational capability in terms of the clinical environment, the surgical environment and out support to the troops – the family members and the retired individuals,” said Holman.
Already a billion dollars worth of contracts have been awarded just for military construction. Robert Murdock is the director of San Antonio’s office of military affairs. With the recent loss of AT&T’s corporate headquarters, Murdock hopes the BRAC construction will crescendo into major economic boom for the area.
“So in addition to all the BRAC organizations that are moving to San Antonio – we would expect a fair number of ancillary contractor support organizations to move in conjunction with then and that just increases the economic development for the city by another degree,” Murdock said.
But the city is also preparing for a quick and large population increase. Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson is a member of the Military Transformation Task Force. Its mission is to support the BRAC plan and make sure the city can handle the expansion.
“A lot of it has to do with the quality of life – how well the local communities are addressing housing issues, school issues, infrastructure issues,” said Larson.
Among the 60 plus construction projects, there are no plans to build new military housing for families. So the civilian market must absorb roughly 6,000 of them. Good news for the realtors, but a difficult transition for older neighborhoods with narrow streets and increasing traffic. Interstate 35 leading to Fort Sam Houston is already clogged.
Jason Gonzalez is a civilian who makes the commute to Fort Sam Houston’s main gate on Walter’s Street every day. He says it used to take 10 minutes.
“Ever since the BRAC program has started it’ll take you anywhere from 20 minutes to 25 minutes,” Gonzales said.
Officials recently opened several other gates to vehicle traffic, but getting to the base from the freeway will continue to be a struggle.
The transition task force and military officials have begun holding town hall style meetings to address traffic and other issues. San Antonio City Councilwoman Sheila McNeal represents the city on the task force.
“The meetings like this meeting we’re having tonight are an opportunity to talk about that plan and make sure that we’re doing on the outside, what we need to do in order to be able to complement what’s going on the inside that base,” said McNeal.
This town hall meeting was held in Dignowitty Hill. BRAC offers a promise of economic renewal. Resident Barbara Garcia says she’s optimistic.
“There are issues with prostitution and drugs and crack houses – kind of some bad streets – we’re trying to clean it up,” said Garcia
But eastside neighborhoods are still suffering from failed promises of revitalization. Char Miller is a professor of urban and environmental history at Trinity University. He’s currently teaching at Pamona College.
“I don’t think that BRAC will revitalize the Eastside any more than the AT&T Center did or the Alamodome, and so what Dignowitty Hill and Government Hill and those areas will get is a lot more commuter traffic flowing through their neighborhoods, but not cash being dropped off into their cash registers,” said Miller.
Although the federal government is responsible for San Antonio’s sudden growth it provides no federal money for expanding infrastructure.
“There is no money for off-installation construction. I think part of the responsibility when a federal installation is growing is to help the local communities and we’ll just see if that’s available – I don’t think we can bank of it – we’re going to have make the commitment to grow that infrastructure from the city, county and the state level,” said County Commissioner Lyle Larson.
Larson and Councilwoman McNeil say they will continue fighting for help with projects off base. In the meantime, construction moves forward inside the gates – on track to meet a deadline of September 2011. |
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