Congressman Chris Smith met with Acting Navy Secretary BJ Penn and Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Installations and Environment Howard Snow at the Pentagon Friday to press the Navy to do more research about its controversial plan to open privatized military housing areas on Naval Weapons Station Earle to the general public.

            “I asked Secretary Penn to talk to the owner of the homes,” Smith said. “That hasn’t happened yet. Twenty years ago the Navy entered into a good-faith contract with the developer but the world has since changed. It seems to me it is time for the Navy to approach the developer about a buyout.”

             Smith said he handed Secretary Penn a letter from the developer’s attorney which addresses a buyout, something Penn reported he had not seen before.

            The Navy has now completed its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Laurelwood Housing Area Access, opening the door to building a public road onto Earle to reach the Laurelwood Housing Area, a privatized housing development originally built for Navy families

            “The access alternative the Navy settled on has real problems,” Smith said. “It proposes a new, meandering public road over 1.3 miles long to be built right through the heart of this sensitive weapons installation that serves a vital function to our military. Clearly, allowing unvetted, public access into and through a weapons and munitions base poses a significant security threat. It’s not worth the risk. Frankly, I think the final EIS is lacking key information such as total cost. I told the Secretary that the Navy had flawed data. How can the Navy make a prudent decision without the details? It paves the way for a bad decision.”

            Smith said he asked Penn for total costs of the entire plan, including: cost to the Navy for installing adequate security and patrolling along the fence lines of the road and around the housing area; cost to the local community to educate new students from the 300-home development; cost to the private contractor of building such a long road; and expenses to the Navy for meeting State environmental and road development permitting and regulation requirements. Smith also asked for a top security briefing on the security risks of the proposal.

            “I’ve requested these items before and now that the Navy has settled on one proposal I expect to finally get this critical information” Smith said.

Smith said if the Navy is using the cost of public access as leverage for favorable buyout terms, it is taking an “unwarranted gamble.” If the contractor decides to go ahead and pay to build the road, the base will be open to public travel for decades, significantly downgrading security.

            “I’m worried that the Navy is playing games with security,” Smith said. “If the Navy is bluffing and the owner goes on to build this road, Earle will lose significant installation safety. We live in the post-911 age, the Fort Dix Six age, two events which occurred in this region of the country. The military has been in the mode of increasing security, not decreasing security. This road absolutely decreases security.”

            Smith said he feels the local taxpayers could be significantly impacted if the homes are opened to the general public.

            “It’s unfair for local property taxpayers to take on a huge increase in their already-high property taxes,” Smith said.  “The Navy isn’t saving taxpayers any money when they shift costs from one account to another or from one level of government to another.  One way or another the taxpayer is stuck footing the bill for a bad decision by the Navy.”

            In the 1980s, the Laurelwood housing development was originally built on base in Colts Neck Township, with the intention to serve military families. The public education for the Navy families was supported by military impact education funding, in coordination with the nearby Tinton Falls school district. Cuts in Navy personnel stationed at Earle in recent years, however, have resulted in only about a dozen of the homes currently being used, forcing the Navy to pay more than $3 million a year to the developer to maintain empty homes. Under the terms of its original construction deal with the Navy, the private owner of the development has a right to be compensated for the homes regardless of occupancy, or be allowed to lease the homes to the public.