LIMESTONE – Gen. Lloyd W. Newton could not be pinned down Tuesday on whether Defense Finance and Accounting Services in Limestone will be taken off the Department of Defense list for closure, but he promised employees and northern Maine they would receive a fair hearing from the nine-member commission.

Newton, Gov. John Baldacci and Rep. Michael Michaud were met by several hundred supporters, mostly employees of DFAS, when they arrived on Arkansas Drive, the main road into the DFAS center.

Employees of DFAS were notable in bright yellow T-shirts, carrying handmade signs expressing their feelings for the workplace.

The general, governor and congressman met in closed session with employees and the administration of the Limestone DFAS center, with state and local politicians and members of the Grow DFAS Committee during the four hours they were in northern Maine.

Newton came to the DFAS center at the behest of Maine’s congressional delegation.

“It’s been a good visit, and I was able to see firsthand the facility and the people,” Newton said at a press conference after the nearly three hours of closed door meetings. “I have a feel for what they are doing, and they are doing an important job.

“We will assess the recommendation for closure … to see if they followed or deviated from the criteria,” he said. “I was very surprised and pleased with the facility and the people. It was just first rate.”

“This is one of the area’s largest employers, and it has a huge economic impact in Aroostook County and it is important to all of us,” Baldacci said when asked if the small facility could be lost in the mix of large facilities being proposed for closure. “This closure is personal, because many of us worked hard to build back Loring.

“This is real, and people here are real,” he said. “People are proving the case that this facility should remain open.”

Michaud said he felt the same way.

“The facility may be small, but its impact is great,” he said. “This facility is so important to the people of Aroostook County.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Gen. Newton and Mr. Principi [chairman of the nine-person BRAC group] are men of great integrity,” Michaud said. “They both said they would take an independent look at this.”

“DFAS Limestone is one of the lowest cost facilities in the U.S., has an extremely low employee turnover rate, low overall operating costs, and the ability to take on even more work for the Pentagon,” Maine’s congressional delegation wrote in a press release Tuesday. “In addition, this facility is crucial to the community as it was initially activated in part to ease the devastating economic impacts caused by the closing of Loring Air Force Base during the last round of BRAC closures.”

The general’s small entourage was greeted by several hundred DFAS employees, many wearing bright yellow T-shirts that declared “Grow DFAS Get it done.”

Others waved homemade signs saying, “Grow, Don’t go,” “DFAS Limestone is a great place to grow,” “We will work our butts off, if you let us,” or “Let us grow.”

“These people here really care,” Rep. Peter Edgecomb, R-Caribou, said as he walked around talking with people at the rally.

Only employees were allowed back into the DFAS building after the rally. Security guards manned the entrance roads to the facility.

Newton, Baldacci, Michaud and aides to Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins met inside the DFAS center for 90 minutes.

The Grow DFAS Committee, during their 90-minute meeting, attempted to show that the Defense Department decision to close Limestone DFAS deviated from the closure and realignment criteria in three areas: military value, cost savings, and economic impact.

They told Newton the center has low operating costs, an excellent work force and room to grow. They made proposals that the DOD should increase the work force at Limestone to 480 or 600 employees if the military wants to save money.

Newton was told it will take the military 25 years to recover the $7.8 million closing cost for Limestone DFAS. The committee also told him the military can save money by keeping Limestone open.

Increasing the number of employees at Limestone, Newton was told, could save the military between $12.5 million and $15.1 million.

The cost of operating the Limestone facility was said to be $4.98 per square foot and the cost at three supercenters proposed by the military ranged from $8.27 to $14.96.

Newton was told the Limestone DFAS could accommodate 1,200 employees, if the facility is operated in two shifts.

DFAS Limestone, which has been in northern Maine since 1995, is in its first year of a 50-year no-cost renewable lease.

After the public session, Baldacci said he, Newton and Michaud were “very impressed with the people lining the drive.”

“I was very pleased with the turnout, especially for the time of the day and week it was,” he said. “A lot of people made the effort.”

DFAS Limestone is one of 26 DFAS centers the Pentagon has. All but three supercenters are targeted for closure. BRAC will hold a regional hearing on closures in Boston on July 6.

The panel will make its final decision by Sept. 8 when it must present its recommendations to President Bush.