LIMESTONE – One month before the Department of Defense put the Limestone Defense Finance and Accounting Service center on the chopping block, there were indications the center was slated for bigger and better things in the future.

Officials of the Loring Development Authority had heard unconfirmed reports that the Limestone DFAS center was to lose employees who would be moved elsewhere in DFAS.

Checking out the report, Carl Flora, president and CEO of the LDA, was told by the offices of Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins that there were no current plans to do anything that would affect Limestone DFAS.

Less than five weeks later, on May 13, the DOD announced plans to close Limestone DFAS, as well as 21 other DFAS centers and centralize all DFAS activities at three centers located in Denver, Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio.

Limestone DFAS has 362 employees and generates an estimated 225 indirect jobs in the local economy, for a total of 587 affected people.

The move by the DOD to realign DFAS centers took everyone by surprise. It had been believed the realignment would affect only military bases.

For Loring, the announced closure of DFAS is the second hit in 11 years by the DOD. In 1994 the former Loring Air Force Base was closed, and it took the LDA all that time to bring some 1,300 civilian jobs to the Loring Commerce Centre.

In one swipe of the pen on Friday, the DOD proposed to dispose of one-quarter of the jobs developed in 11 years.

“We often get these reports and we check them out through the Washington delegation,” Flora said Tuesday. “Typically unfounded, the rumors are always checked out, and we did.

“The offices of Sens. Snowe and Collins reported that there were no current plans to do anything that would impact Limestone DFAS in April,” Flora said. “As far as we knew, everything was all right until last Friday.

“Every indication we had, we thought we had assurances, was that [Limestone] DFAS was in a growth mode,” Flora said.

That has changed.

Saturday and Sunday brought assurances by state officials and Maine’s congressional delegation that a full-court press would be launched to save Limestone DFAS, one of the DOD’s award-winning centers, one where the government saves money.

On Monday, local officials launched the “Grow DFAS Committee,” whose aim is not only to save Limestone DFAS, but to make it grow, to increase responsibilities and to send more work to the northern Maine center.

Walt Elish, executive director of the Aroostook Partnership for Progress, and Flora, the LDA official, head the committee.

The 14-person committee includes economic developers in northern Maine, members of the LDA board of directors, municipal officials of Limestone and Caribou, a union official, representatives of Snowe’s and Collins’ offices and a member of Gov. John Baldacci’s staff.

“Our intention is for diversity, and to get off the starting line as quickly as possible,” Flora said. “We want to touch all bases, to leave no stone unturned.”

The Base Realignment and Closure Commission will hold hearings between now and Sept. 8, when a list must be given to President Bush.

No one knows why the DOD called for closure of the center, which has garnered awards over the years for the work ethic of its employees and for doing the work at the lowest cost across the system.

The Loring Development Authority estimates that the annual payroll of the facility, where jobs average $32,000 to $35,000 per year, amounts to between $11 million and $12 million.

Limestone DFAS is considered the corner piece of the Loring redevelopment process of the last 11 years.

The facility, 145,000 square feet, is located in the former Air Force Base hospital. The $28 million facility was built in 1988, just six years before the base closed. In the last three years, $6 million in renovations have been done to the facility.