LIMESTONE – The U.S. Air Force is preparing to transfer the title of 2,500 acres of the former Loring Air Force Base to the Loring Development Authority, clearing the way for the property to become part of the local tax base.

More than 50 years has passed since the federal government took over what was called “wilderness” in northern Maine, and carved out what became one of the Air Force’s premier B-52 Bomber bases.

With the return of the acreage and associated buildings, the LDA can in turn sell the property to private enterprises, returning the property to generating tax revenue for local governments.

The title transfer is expected to be complete sometime in January, according to local officials who have been working to make it a reality since the base closed in 1994.

“It’s probably the most important event that can happen in a military base closure to secure title to the property so you can begin to sell parcels off and get back onto the local community roles,” said Brian Hamel, LDA president, during a recent interview.

Without the deed transfer, Lamb Weston would not build a french fry processing plant on the former base, Hamel explained.

Neither would Irving Forest Products consider constructing a manufacturing plant on the former base.

It’s unclear at this time how much the town of Limestone, in which most of the former base is located, could realize in additional property taxes. But both the potato processing and wood products plants will be worth about $100 million, according to separate announcements made earlier by the companies.

Lamb Weston plans to begin construction this April, while the Irving project has been put on the back burner in view of depressed lumber prices.

Included in the deed transfer are dozens of buildings and facilities, such as housing and aircraft maintenance shops, that are scheduled for demolition to make room for the manufacturing plants.

The LDA also will take title of the golf course, and additional housing that is already scheduled to be sold to private parties. The former Base Exchange, which will become an applied technology center, and the entire aviation complex will be deeded to the authority.

Hamel said that the LDA has no plans to sell any property associated with the runway and other aviation facilities in order that the agency can continue control of the asset.

Although the road from closure to title transfer may have seemed long, it actually has been a process that fell naturally into place as base redevelopment occurred, according to David Belyea, director of the Air Force Base Conversion Agency at Loring.

“We had a lot of issues to figure out,” said Belyea, citing the cleanup of hazardous waste sites at the former military base.

The Air Force had to make sure that the base was environmentally clean enough to transfer the property. About $140 million has been spent to clean up petroleum spills and other sites that were contaminated.

“It’s not just paperwork driven,” said Hamel. “It’s real live work that had to be done in the field.”

Using a chart measuring about 18 square feet, Belyea described the process used in preparing a military base for transfer. Several processes, such as community planning and installation management, continued simultaneously.

Carl Flora, the LDA’s vice president and in-house attorney, has been working on the transfer process for the LDA. During a recent briefing, he displayed a binder measuring 4 or 5 inches thick that contains transfer documents and regulations.

When the base closure announcement was first made, local officials were afraid that the state or local governments would have to buy the property at fair market value in order to reuse it for civilian purposes.

However, Congress, led by former Maine Sens. George J. Mitchell and William S. Cohen, approved legislation in the mid-1990s which created a process where the title could be given away through an “economic development conveyance.” Although the new law helped several regions affected by a base closure, “Loring was clearly what it was targeted to,” said Belyea.

The LDA has control of a total of about 3,600 acres and associated property under a 55-year lease. The other 1,100 acres still has ground water contamination, for which remedies are being undertaken. However, those cleanup procedures must be in place for a few years before a title can be turned over, Belyea said.

The contamination is not expected to be an impediment to redevelopment since the acreage’s drinking water does not come from the ground, according to Hamel. It comes from the Little Madawaska River Dam.

Belyea said that title could be transferred by 2002 at the earliest.

The rest of the 9,000-acre base is utilized by other governmental entities, such as the Defense Finance and Accounting Services, the Maine Army National Guard Refurbishment Center, the federal Fish and Wildlife Refuge and the Job Corps program.