Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 17, 1990 TAG: 9004170228
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW BRITAIN, CONN. LENGTH: Medium
In a cost-cutting move, the families of mostly low-paid military recruiters and support staff have been told they must leave their cozy Army-owned ranch houses near obsolete Nike missile bases by Aug. 15. A few have until 1993 to find new homes.
"We don't know where we're going to go," said Cynthia Aitken, whose New Britain home is in a cluster of 16 Army houses that are being sold off.
The houses once were occupied by the families of Nike anti-aircraft missile crews who had to live nearby so they could rush to their battle stations in the event of war.
The missiles were phased out two decades ago, and the housing passed on to younger generations of military families, many of them in the Army but with some from the other branches of the armed forces.
Two years ago, Congress ordered the Army to close or reorganize 86 installations. As part of that order, the Army must sell 53 housing complexes near former Nike bases.
The housing is concentrated in the Northeast, with 239 families in Connecticut, 163 in New York, 104 in New Jersey, 124 in Massachusetts, 133 in Pennsylvania and 78 families in Rhode Island. There also are 12 houses in Maryland, 94 in St. Louis, 32 in Virginia, 110 in Wisconsin, 24 in Illinois and 60 in Washington state.
The closings will save the Army about $2 million in maintenance and utility costs in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island this year alone, said Helen Mulligan, a spokesman for Fort Devens in Ayer, Mass.
by CNB