By Clynt RidgellPublished May 20, 2009
If President Obama's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2010 passes as is there will be a lot of money rolling into Guam via military construction projects. Today the Navy's Captain Paul Fuligni and Lieutenant Colonel Richard Mathews of the U.S. Air Force gave a joint presentation of the potential projects to members of the Guam Contractors Association.
$1.1 billion could trickle through Guam's economy in FY2010. That's how much money could be spent on military contracts if the presidents proposed budget for FY2010 is passed as is. So this is how the $1.1 billion broken down: $674 million would go towards the Marines relocation from Okinawa to Guam, $259 million towards the construction of a new Naval Hospital, and $174 million will be spread out amongst other military construction contracts.
Cpt. Fuligni and Lt. Col. Mathews didn't only focus on 2010; they gave an overview of recently-completed projects and currently funded projects both on Navy Base Guam and Andersen Air Force Base that have nothing to do with the movement of Marines to Guam. "It is a big business here and its getting bigger I don't know if folks realize this but it's over a half-billion dollars a year that goes into running those two bases right now."
Cpt. Fuligni explained how the combining of Naval Base Guam and AAFB through the Joint Region Command would affect base operations and the various contracts needed to sustain them. "So what does that really mean? The Air Force leadership remains in place. Col. Mathews remains the commander of the military squadron up there; what Col. Mathews though will find come October is his civilians become Navy civilians. A lot of them will become NAVFAC civilians he will be living and working in a building owned by the Navy, on land owned by the Navy, on a base which the bills are paid by the Navy."
This means that all funding for both bases for Fiscal Year 2010 will be funneled through the Navy.
Other ongoing projects include extensions made to the Kilo Wharf in Apra Harbor, the building of a central utility plant at Naval Hospital, and improvements made to extend the life of Andersen's landfill. "That is not to compete with Layon, absolutely not," said Fuligni. "Wwe're not competing with the Dandan landfill. This is simply to expand the current life of the Andersen landfill to get us to the point where we can as the secretary of the navy recently said become a customer of the new Guam landfill."
In addition to the ongoing projects and the projects for 2010 there are still unawarded projects for 2009 that were funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These include projects to improve and expand AAFB's existing runways, taxiways and parking spots as well as improvements to Andersen's water system.
Related links
* VIDEO: Billions to trickle into island's economy
Posts
