Maine, N.H. chiefs unite for shipyard Governors to try to keep base open

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – The governors of Maine and New Hampshire came together Tuesday, pledging the cooperation of both states in keeping the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard open.

New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson and Maine Gov. John Baldacci stood in a riverfront park with the shipyard, on an island in the Piscataqua River that separates the two states, behind them. Both said they are determined to ensure its survival in the 2005 round of base closures.

“Maine and New Hampshire have had issues in the past, but under our administrations we are joining hands and forces together because of the importance of the shipyard behind us,” said Baldacci.

Baldacci, a Democrat, already has approved giving $50,000 in state money to the Seacoast Shipyard Association to hire an advocate for the shipyard in Washington. Benson, a Republican, said he doesn’t have the same authority, but will ask his Executive Council to approve a matching amount.

The governors, both of whom were elected to their first terms in 2002, said they will ask private businesses to donate another $150,000.

Keeping the shipyard open is not only vital to the two states’ economies, but also to the strength of the nation’s military, Benson said. The shipyard, which services nuclear submarines, is one of the seacoast region’s major employers, with 2,635 workers from Maine and 1,826 from New Hampshire.

Benson praised the shipyard as the most efficient of the nation’s four similar facilities, noting that the average time a submarine stays at the shipyard is 20 days, down from 30 days a decade ago.

“By losing the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which cannot happen, we would lose the innovator among the four shipyards,” he said. “We are the innovators; we are the risk-takers.”

The shipyard survived three rounds of cuts in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the first round, the shipyard was protected by executive action. After that, it took the full weight of the Maine and the New Hampshire congressional delegations to keep it off the list.

Last week, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said the base closing commission should suspend its work on the next round of closings pending a complete assessment of the military’s needs.

Baldacci, who served four terms in the U.S. House, said the two states should assume the base closing process will continue.

“My sense would be in the middle of what’s going on internationally that there would be a pause in this process – we’re at war,” he said. “But not being in Washington, we don’t have that luxury … This base closure process has been approved by Congress and I don’t see that being stopped. We’ve got to be prepared for it.”

The Portsmouth City Council took up the fight this week, voting to contribute $10,000 to the effort to save the shipyard.

“We must keep it open. The city of Portsmouth wraps its arms around it,” Mayor Evelyn Sirrell said. “We will keep it open, even if we have to go to Washington.”

Military officials have said there is no target number of bases to be closed. There are about 425 major military installations nationwide, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said he believes the military has about 20 to 25 percent excess capacity at its bases.