THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 25, 1995 TAG: 9506250050
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WALLOPS ISLAND LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Budget cuts at the federal level inject an edge of uncertainty into the future of Wallops Flight Facility. Will the 1,000-member staff be cut? Will programs be transferred to other bases, or sliced entirely?
At this point, no one knows.
``It's all up in the air still,'' said Keith Koehler, spokesman for Wallops.
Nationwide, NASA must cut $5 billion over the next five years to meet President Clinton's call for budget reductions. Wallops' portion, said Koehler, falls into two categories.
First, an agencywide study has recommended that all NASA aircraft be housed at Dryden Flight Research Center in California. Wallops has five aircraft that it uses for scientific experiments, with a support staff of 45. Wallops' second charge is to reduce its operating costs.
``We're trying to do this without impacting any of the science projects, and that's tough,'' said Koehler.
It's possible, he said, that 10 percent to 20 percent of the facility's jobs will be eliminated - a loss to the community of up to 200 well-paid positions. Koehler said most of those cuts, if they occur at all, will come through attrition over the next five years.
It's not the first reduction in staff that Wallops has absorbed in recent years. Since October 1993, the facility has lost about 150 employees, Koehler said, mostly through retirement. Forty people left in March as a result of a ``buy-out,'' when federal employees were paid a bonus to retire early.
Any reduction in Wallops' staff or buying habits would affect the local economy. Koehler said the base has a payroll of about $30 million, two-thirds of which is paid to Virginia residents. Payments for goods and services from local companies push Wallops' contribution to the local economy to $56 million each year.
At this point, said Koehler, there is no way to determine how much - if any - of this money will evaporate. For the next several months, managers at Wallops will be putting together an ``implementation plan'' for the suggested cost-cutting measures. That plan will be combined with those of NASA facilities nationwide, which in turn will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget in Washington this fall.
By January, the president will submit NASA's budget, with those of all the federal agencies, to Congress for review. Then Congress can refine NASA's budget.
There is a bright side Wallops' future. Koehler said NASA will be working to bring in more revenue from private and military projects. And if the commercial spaceport blossoms, he said, Wallops could have much more work to do than it does now. Even if NASA itself becomes smaller, skilled workers could find jobs with commercial launch and satelite companies drawn by the spaceport.
In any case, changes to Wallops will be phased in gradually.
``It's not going to be a big shock to the community or the workers,'' said Koehler. by CNB