So much for fences and warning signs keeping people off military bases...trespasser blown to bits at Ft. Bragg ordnance range

Two poignant responses in this Fayetteville Observer article today from Fort Bragg (N.C.) spokesman Tom McCollum, on the death of a civilian trespasser who was blown to shreds on Friday when scavenging for scrap metal and stepping on "unexploded ordnance" on an explosives range within the confines of the 35,000-acre Army base in North Carolina:

1. "You are going to have death when someone is stupid and walks into these areas."
2. "We can't control the access to our impact areas...we've done just about everything we can."

As this translates to our civilian housing objections at Weapons Station Earle, and NOPE's view that security forces will never be able to fully stop trespassers once civilians are given keys to the base, we reiterate the point that Lt. Col. Jim Sfayer (retired) made at last Tuesday's NOPE rally (and past NOPE briefings) that, without a full cadre of security personnel, it is impossible to keep trespassers and poachers off military bases as vast as 11,000-acre Mainside Earle and the 35,000-acre Fort Bragg.

As more than a casual observer, it appears ludicrious to us in the case of the accidental death by explosion of a civilian at Bragg for the U.S. Army to take zero accountability for Friday's incident and to write this off as someone for being "stupid." And turning to the Department of Navy's plan to let civilians rent 300 underutilized military houses at NWS Earle, it is ludicrious, as we highlighted on Tuesday night, to expect that Earle can prevent a similar catastrophe by providing unimpeded civilian access to the Laurelwood housing development within its fences.

DO NOT buy the DoN's bill of goods that it can keep us, and NWS Earle, secure by introducing 300 civilian renter families onto the base by September 2010.

NJ's Gubernatorial candidates M.I.A. on Earle

Regardless of where you stand ahead of tomorrow's elections, for the sake of fair disclosure, none of the three primary candidates for N.J. Governor has shown any inkling of interest in sharing views on proposed civilian housing at Weapons Station Earle - an outright disgrace in failing to protect the state's best interests.

New Jersey taxpayers not only face tremendous homeland security risk, but at least a $500 million unfundated mandate, if the Department of Navy gets its wish, in our estimation (see our Business Case analysis).

Earlier this year, Governor Corzine sent a rep to meet with us in Tinton Falls, but had no interest in recognizing the issue or exploring it any more deeply than the cursory attendance at the meeting. Neither the Christie nor Daggett camps responded to written and email inquiries on where the candidates stand. To be sure, we are not really sure than any of them knows that civilian renters are slated for Earle in 2010 if the Department of Navy has its way, although Christie should, since he aggressively prosecuted Gary McKinnon, the U.K. crackpot who crashed essential Earle computer networks for a month around the time of 9/11.

NOPE is nonpartisan, but wants to remind our supporters that, whichever candidate you choose for New Jersey Governor on Tuesday, that you need to a) fill out and mail the pre-addressed postcards to the Governor that NOPE distributed at Tuesday's rally (email us at njNOPE@gmail.com or justsaynope@verizon.net if you need more; we printed another 2,000 copies) and b) place calls to the Governor (609-292-6000) stating your objection to proposed civilian housing at NWS Earle.

Our prayers to injured Earle Navy base employee

The Asbury Park Press reports that a male employee at Naval Weapons Station Earle lost part of his lower left leg Friday morning when struck by a locomotive backing up into a roundhouse. Our thoughts and prayers go out to this injured individual for a speedy recovery and to his family, and we remind readers of how NOPE values the safety and well being of Earle's employees, who are an essential part of our community.

Asbury Park Press take on the GAO...and more on our hugely successful postcard campaign

It is truly nice for NOPE to see a) the reference to the postcard campaign we initiated at Tuesday night's rally and b) the return of reporter Nina Rizzo to this story. Ms. Rizzo has been following the Earle case from the beginning and gives fair and balanced perspectives, which is all any reader can ask in such a multi-layered issue as proposed civilian housing at NWS Earle. We hope the APP editors will keep Ms. Rizzo on this story.

Speaking of the postcard campaign, we've already exhausted our supply of 600 sets distributed (and many subsequently collected) during the rally and are printing another 1,000 sets. For any person interested in soliciting signatures from their neighbors, friends or family, contact us at njNOPE@gmail.com, justsaynope@verizon.net, or call us at 732.322.0130, and we can arrange for you to get a stack once we've printed them.

For those that missed the rally but would like to participate in our campaign, and are unsure what it is about, NOPE has targeted four agencies that need to be aware of the communities' ire - the Secretary of the Navy, the EPA, NJ Homeland Security and Governor Corzine - and is asking people to sign a 5th postcard that we will physically hand over in Trenton as we lobby for passage of the Beck-O'Scanlon-Casagrande bill mandating a state study of the Laurelwood security and financial impacts before any NJ agency (namely DEP and DOT) can issue permits to the Department of Navy. The first four have preprinted address to which people can mail their cards, while we're arranging for drop-off points for the 5th card.

Please stay tuned here for more details, and safe Halloween fun to those participating with their children in what is one of the most fun days of the year!

Congressman Smith: President Signs Earle Amendment Into Law

According to this press release issued Wednesday by Congressman Chris Smith's office, President Obama signed into law Mr. Smith's legislation "to require a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study of the U.S. Navy’s controversial proposal to open the Laurelwood military housing complex on Naval Weapons Station Earle, the largest munitions depot on the East Coast, to the general public."

NOPE again appreciates the years of effort Congressman Smith has put into this issue, well before our group's existence, and wholeheartedly agrees with Mr. Smith's assertion that "making a highly secure military weapons depot accessible to anyone with a month and a half’s rent is a bad idea."

In addition, we anticipate that the GAO's discovery will not only expose the Department of Navy's stubborn and flawed contention that, by contract, it must open the Laurelwood housing to civilians by September 2010, but also will shed light on a number of significant pieces of information that NAVFAC failed to discuss to the U.S. taxpayer in its "Environmental Impact Statement" (EIS) on Laurelwood - namely regarding Supplemental Lease Agreement 43.

It is our understanding that this agreement, obtained earlier this year by NOPE thru the Freedom of Information Act, and signed in August 2002 as part of Laurelwood's refinancing of the mortgage, compounds what was a bad contract from the get-go in the 1980s. And, contrary to the Department of Navy's contention in the EIS that "No Build" (i.e. do not build the Laurelwood road, do not open the houses to civilians) is not an option, No. 43 suggests the lease automatically goes to buyout and teardown phase if the DoN does not provide Laurelwood access to pave the road and upgrade the homes at the end of the "in-lease" (i.e. military's occupation of the homes), which is April 30, 2010.

Here's the kicker. By agreeing to this supplement, S.A. 43 suggests that "the Government" (as referred to in the document), less than one year after 9-11, not only signed away its contractual right to use National Emergency Termination clauses to void the lease, but also appears to obligate the U.S. taxpayer to an additional $20 million+ of rent payments to Laurelwood in the event that certain civilian occupancy levels are not met. NOW we see why the Navy was steadfast in telling us during face-to-face meetings that it would not invoke the termination clause (rather than its excuse at the time that it didn't want to be perceived as a bad business partner to federal government contractors.)

None of us in NOPE is an expert at privatized military housing contracts, but we are hopeful that the GAO report will shed light on important financial data points and security analysis that clearly was lacking in the Department of Navy's (NAVFAC) final EIS, and that the DoN will use this opportunity to finally approach Laurelwood's owner at the bargaining table on a settlement that not only restores order to NWS Earle, but is the right thing to do for surrounding communities and the folks behind Earle's lines who put their lives on the line for our country.

Rally a HUGE success, but lots more to do

The Department of Navy need not look further than the success of last night's NOPE rally at Colts Neck High School to know that it should do an about-face on its egregiously flawed decision to open military housing at Weapons Station Earle to civilian renters, starting next year, through 2040.

NOPE would like to thank the 250-300 that turned out on a rainy night to participate in our rally at CNHS, plus the continued outpouring of support today from many of the attendees, who are eager to volunteer to spread our message and participate in the cause as the Navy's April 30, 2010, deadline to obligate the Laurelwood housing lease draws near.

If nothing else, the Department of Navy needs to know that NOPE is NOT going away, and our ranks will only grow!

NOPE also would like to acknowledge participation of our elected officials - from Sen. Menendez's office and Rep. Smith's and Holt's offices in Washington, all the way thru the District 12 State Senate team, Monmouth County Freeholders and leaders of Colts Neck and Tinton Falls.

And we'd also acknowledge the extensive media coverage from News 12 (our story evidently aired on the 10p and 11p newscasts, and we'll provide a link once it is available) and Millenium Radio (i.e. WOBM, 94.3 The Point, etc) and down to diverse local media.

To reiterate last night's takeaways:

• The NOPE community is unified, committed, and growing even stronger! There is no arguing this point.
• The Navy's assertion to the public that civilian housing at NWS Earle is a "done deal" and needs to go through (and will not compromise the base's mission or our security) is FAR from the truth. As noted last night, article No. 15 of Supplement No. 43 to the Laurelwood lease (see our July 15, 2009 blog entry pertaining to this, with the link providing the full document NOPE obtained through the Freedom of Information Act) obligates the Navy and its developer to a buyout and teardown should "the government fail to provide unimpeded access at the termination of the inlease (April 30, 2010)." Furthermore, Supplement No. 43 also foolishly signed away the Government's right to revoke the lease in the event of a national emergency, and appears to potentially obligate the Government to laddered rent payments to the developer through 2017 at a cost that we calculate at upwards of $22 million.
• The wheels are in motion for a GAO financial and security assessment of the Laurelwood housing issue (see pgs. 898-899 of the House Conference report accompanying the FY 2010 Defense Authorization legislation) - an assessment that the Navy (via the NAVFAC branch) was required to include in its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) of the Laurelwood housing issue but refused to do, citing confidentiality and a "sorry, but financial projections are too difficult for us to calculate" excuse.
• Supporters need to provide us with a list of 5-10 more names of residents, along with their email addresses, phone numbers and home addresses, so that we can extend our message and increase the pressure on the Department of Navy and the agencies that dropped the ball on this issue, namely the EPA, DHS and Governor Corzine. In addition to the hundreds of postcards you submitted last night (and that we will mail early next week, once cover letters are drawn), visitors to the rally took stacks of the pre-printed postcards home with them to share with their neighbors. In all, we expect to quickly exhaust the 600 sets of protest postcards we printed for last night's rally. Well done, folks!
• NOPE will have a strong turnout for our efforts to lobby members of the State House in Trenton for passage of S3017/A4159, mandating a cost benefit and security analysis of the Laurelwood housing plan before state agencies can issue permits the Department of Navy needs to begin the road construction phase of Alternative 4 (the road to Laurelwood). We anticipate at least 1 busload of supporters, and are targeting 1,000 signed postcards to hand over when the committees meet to discuss the bill, expected sometime after the November elections.

Stay tuned for more in the days, weeks and months ahead, and thanks again for your support, which is essential if we are to prevail in preventing civilian housing at NWS Earle. And please contact us at njnope@gmail.com or justsaynope@verizon.net.

NOPE RALLY TONIGHT - Colts Neck High, 730 p.m.!!!

Please make every effort to attend (children are welcome).

NOPE has prepared a very informative presentation to bring all Monmouth County residents and the general public up to speed on the faulty civilian housing plan at Weapons Station Earle and will include:

• What the Department of Navy left out of its mandated Environmental Impact Study...and what they do not want to public (nor federal agencies such as the EPA) to know
• Recent terror plots at U.S. military bases and why Earle could be targeted
• Colts Neck Township's hiring of Rudy Guiliani's security consulting firm to assist in a security evaluation
• What our lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are doing through the Fiscal 2010 Defense Authorization Act
• The bipartisan support of our N.J. legislators
• Time is running out...only 185 days until the Navy turns the housing over to a private developer and ultimately grants unimpeded access to the Laurelwood homes for the next 30 years
• And much, much more...

To be considerate of your time, our committee has worked diligently to keep the rally to 1 hour. Please attend and SHOW OUR STRENGTH IN NUMBERS!

Thank you for your continued support!

APP Preview of Oct. 27 NOPE Rally

The preview coverage by the Asbury Park Press of tomorrow night's NOPE RALLY (at Colts Neck High School, starting at 7:30 p.m.) is welcome, though somewhat inaccurate.

Short shrift is given to the fact that NOPE's boundaries stretch well beyond "a group of township residents." NOPE comprises resident supporters well beyond Colts Neck's borders, namely Tinton Falls, but other surrounding towns as well (Freehold, Ocean, Howell, Marlboro) that oppose the Navy's plans to house civilians at Weapons Station Earle the next 30 years.

The notion, too, that Senators Menendez and Lautenberg, plus Representatives Smith (District 4) and Holt (District 12), pushed extremely hard for our cause vis-a-vis an defense spending bill amendment in D.C. to mandate a study of the financial and security ramifications of the Navy's plan suggests bipartisan federal support for NOPE's cause in Washington. In Trenton, we have Senator Beck and NJ's 12th District team pushing a companion bill that would prevent the Navy from acting on its wishes until the state conducts its own financial and security threat assessment. Mr. Jordan's APP piece, while appreciated, fails to mention that and falls short in recognizing that our case goes beyond a Colts Neck lawsuit to which NOPE is not a party.

Nonetheless, as Diana Piotrowski, NOPE's Communications Director was quoted as saying, tomorrow night's rally will remind the Department of Navy in Washington that New Jersey's lawmakers and taxpayers are steadfast in opposition to an ill-conceived plan that will grossly endanger the livelihoods of NWS Earle's neighbors. The last thing the Department of Navy wants is continued publicity of the Laurelwood housing issue, and that is what NOPE will continue to provide. The more light we shed on this lunacy, the better our chance to prevail.

Please come out and see for yourself why, tomorrow night (Tuesday, Oct. 27) at 7:30 p.m. at Colts Neck High School. It is your obligation to remain informed and to protect your community.

Senate approves defense spending bill

NOPE is hopeful that the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Authorization bill, which passed the House earlier this month and the Senate on Friday (by a 68-29 margin), includes provisions mandating a GAO financial and security assessment of the civilian housing plan at NWS Earle. This would mark a major step in our battle to prevent a bad idea presented by the Department of Navy.

Make sure to attend Tuesday night's rally, where we'll update the community on our progress, what we need to accomplish, and where representatives from Senator Menendez's, Representative Holt's and Smith's and State Senator Beck's offices will address the matter.

The NOPE rally kicks off at 730p at Colts Neck High School. Do not miss this event!

Kudos to CN, TF educational leaders...and Charles Basile!

Our sincere thanks to Tinton Falls and Colts Neck school districts for helping NOPE to publicize our RALLY, Tuesday, October 27 at 730 p.m. at Colts Neck High, and recognizing the necessity of grassroots, taxpayer participation in trying to avert a civilian housing disaster at Weapons Station Earle that has the potential to devastate our (and other) school districts.

Through "kiddie mail" (i.e. kids backpacks), we were able to distribute some 1,800 flyers to families of children in Tinton Falls' K-thru-8 district, and thru an email distributed thru Colts Neck's "listserv" reached at least 1,000 more homes in Colts Neck Township. (And, of course, we could not have done it without the help of printing guru Charles Basile, whose company, The Wall Street Group, has proven vital to NOPE's print publicity campaign.)

We cannot stress enough the need for a packed house on Tuesday night as a symbol of community solidarity and outcry against the Department of Navy's plans for Laurelwood base housing and as a show of support to NOPE and our elected politicians, who have put in thousands of hours fighting for the better of our communities.

Please come out and show your support, and we remind readers that NOPE's upcoming rally and our entire mission is not a protest against those who dutifully defend our rights and serve our country at Weapons Station Earle itself (or attend our schools), but as a sign of discontent over a poor decision by the Department of Navy in Washington, D.C. to let civilians reside within the base's fence line. That said, we invite families now residing at Earle to attend on Tuesday night, to ensure that their kids' quality of education is not compromised down the road by bad leadership decisions.

Privatized military housing running amok

The Air Force Times reported earlier this month on how, yet again, military decision-makers misjudged soldiers' (apparently diminishing) interest in on-base housing. In this report, on-base housing occupancy for Air Force installations is running at a mere 83% of airmen, with families of civilian contractors bumping the rate to 88%. The Air Force, in this case, is saddled with filling homes and is considering opening some to basically anyone, including civilians. And, at the same time, leaders show no sign of slowing or revisiting the privatized military housing trend.

Although there are drastic differences between citations in this story and our particular beef with the Department of the Navy, it is important to note for visitors to our rally on Tuesday, October 27 (Colts Neck High, 730pm) that our case at Weapons Station Earle is not much different, from the perspective that each involved privatization...or turning over construction to outside, private developers and property managers; many have been good partners, but a few have ripped off U.S. taxpayers vis-a-vis the U.S. Military (see American Eagle Communities, toward the bottom of the Air Force Times story).

In our case with Earle, the Department of Navy is, in short, pushing the financial burden of a poorly construed 1980s privatized housing contract on the taxpayers of our communities in Tinton Falls, Colts Neck and broader Monmouth County. There was no justifiable, long-term need to build the 300 Laurelwood homes back in the late 1980s (when the DoN knew it was moving ships from their Earle homeport to other bases), and for about a decade now they've essentially been vacant (6-7 are occupied at present), and now it's evidently our communities' responsibility to make good for DoN missteps?!?!

So, rather than buying out the Laurelwood developer and saving everyone - including NWS Earle personnel and the DoN itself - a massive headache and averting a potential security disaster, the Department of Navy is steadfast about letting the developer open the homes to any willing renter on the open market, so long as the Navy can get out of a presumed $3.5-$4 million annual rent payment to Laurelwood Homes, LLC. Go figure.

We will not stand for this. See why at Colts Neck High, Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 730pm.

Text of Colts Neck Resolution in support of NOPE

In a mild oversight, we neglected to post Resolution 2009-133, adopted by Colts Neck Township Committee and signed by Administrator Robert Bowden on October 14, supporting Neighbors Opposed to Privatization at Earle.

NOPE clearly appreciates the support of Township Committee and their submission to U.S. Senators Menendez and Lautenberg, Congressmen Smith and Holt, Governor Corzine, the District 12 State team, the Monmouth County Freeholders, and Tinton Falls' Borough Council and Mayor.

Pardon the cutoff of Mr. Bowden's signature, but until this document is electronic posted to Colts Neck's website, the attached photo scan will do (just click on it to open).

Remember to attend our rally next Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 730p - Colts Neck High.

Reminder: NOPE Rally, Tuesday, Oct. 27 @ 730p - Colts Neck High

We are within the homestretch of preparations for NOPE's Oct. 27 rally at Colts Neck High, organizing the agenda and presentation for what we anticipate will be a well-attended event by the general public, emergency responders and our elected officials from the federal, state and local levels. Anyone wishing to volunteer to help us publicize the event should contact us at njNOPE@gmail.com, globalinfo1@verizon.net or billholobowski@verizon.net.

Already we have 100 lawn signs out at different spots in Colts Neck and Tinton Falls, and could use some volunteers to either go door-to-door or stand outside an area business to distribute the flyers promoting the rally. Otherwise, please share w/us an email address to which we can send our flyer and you can distribute via email to your neighbors, friends and family.

Also, here's the Asbury Park Press' confirmation of Colts Neck's hiring of Giuliani Partners as security consultants in its lawsuit vs. the Department of Navy.

Colts Neck Township Committee votes to hire Giuliani's firm, passes NOPE resolution

With absolutely no fanfare and in a sadly, near-empty town hall last night, Colts Neck's Township Committee voted 4-1 in favor of hiring Giuliani Partners as a consultant on security matters pertaining to the township's lawsuit to prevent the Department of Navy from housing civilians at Weapons Station Earle as soon as next September, and otherwise unanimously passed a resolution in support of NOPE's continued grassroots efforts.

Fortunately, people in Colts Neck (and those that never or feel it is a waste of time to attend council meetings in neighboring Tinton Falls and elsewhere) have NOPE watching their backs.

The hiring of Rudy Giuliani's consultancy, in our view, is not only a major headline for the township (missed yet again by the Asbury Park Press and the Star-Ledger), but also a potentially significant game-changer for NOPE in publicizing our community's objection to a recipe for disaster that will come with civilian housing within the fence line of a major U.S. weapons storage facility.

Reiterating yesterday's blog, the introduction of Giuliani Partners to this case should attract national media attention to the Earle-civilian housing issue and gives Colts Neck Township some ammunition (i.e. a credible counterterrorism expert) in its lawsuit against the Department of Navy and Laurelwood Homes, LLC and its owner Teri Fischer.

Interestingly, what we also learned last night is that a) the Department of Navy has until tomorrow (Oct. 16) to respond to the suit and b) Mrs. Fischer is trying to be exempted as a party to that lawsuit (it seems unlikely to happen).

We'll keep you posted on the lawsuit and include it as part of our RALLY presentation on Tuesday night, October 27 at 730p at Colts Neck High. DO NOT MISS THE RALLY.

Potential Game Changer in Weapons Station Earle housing battle: Colts Neck to vote tonight on hiring Rudy Giuliani's firm as security consultants

In our regular scan of area township committee meetings, the tentative agenda for tonight's Township Committee meeting in Colts Neck has two resolutions worth following, namely 2009-132 to confirm the appointment of Giuliani Security and Safety, LLC of New York as "Security Consultants". The other, 2009-133 explicitly "supports NOPE." We would encourage NOPE supporters to attend tonight.

(If the above link does not go direct to the agenda, go to "Info & Documents" on the left bar, then "Meeting Minutes Online," "Township Committee Minutes," "2009 Upcoming Agenda" and the October 14, 2009 PDF.)

The hiring of former NYC mayor and U.S. presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani's firm is, in our view, presumably, 1) ammunition in Colts Neck's lawsuit to prevent the Department of Navy plan to let civilians live at Laurelwood military housing units from 2010-2040, but also 2) a potential game-changer from a media publicity perspective.

On the latter (and likely to the Department of Navy's dismay), the hiring is almost certain to broaden media attention (i.e. state and national) to NOPE's case against the Navy's ill-hatched plan to build an unimpeded access route through Earle (a few hundred yards south of the Rt. 34 main gate, which is soon to be rebuilt at a cost of up to $10 million to enhance security and is now out for bids) and let any civilian live within the Earle's fence line - not the smartest move while trying to operating a massive weapons depot amid growing terror threats against U.S. military installations.

Giuliani Security and Safety, according to the company's website, is headed by Pasquale D'Amuro, an internationally recognized expert on counterterrorism and head of the FBI's investigation into the 9/11 attacks. Mr. D'Amura also contributed to or led probes into the 1998 Embassy bombings in East Africa and the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen...obviously high-profile events.

Tomorrow, we will follow up on Wednesday night's meeting - 730pm, Colts Neck Town Hall.

Beck-Casagrande-O'Scanlan invite to Oct. 27 NOPE RALLY suggests no DEP, DOT permit filings by Navy

Within State Senator Beck's invitation to Governor Corzine, U.S. Senators Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg (which should be expanded to include every N.J. politician), to NOPE's October 27 rally (730p @ Colts Neck High School), we learned that neither the N.J. Departments of Transportation nor Environmental Protection have received the required permit applications from the Department of Navy in its effort to build an unimpeded civilian access road from Route 34 to the Laurelwood housing complex at NWS Earle.

This is pretty surprising, in that (from what we understand) the DOT and DEP backlog of applications is typically deep and slow-moving, and NOPE has been promised all along that neither department would fast-track an apparent Navy obligation as it races to an April 30, 2010 deadline to comply with the road-building phase of the 30-year civilian renter portion of the Navy's original housing contract w/private builder Laurelwood Homes, LLC of Washington.

NOPE remains in contact with each agency and will pass on any details as they arise.

Also, with two weeks to go until our major rally, we encourage residents throughout the area communities to keep their eyes open this Saturday and next for NOPE volunteers passing out flyers within Colts Neck and Tinton Falls from 9a-12p. If anyone would like to help us distribute these flyers and spread the word, contact us at globalinfo1@verizon.net, billholobowski@verizon.net or njNOPE@gmail.com.

The EPA needs to revisit chemical exposure at Earle

NOPE's efforts to get the EPA to withdraw the agency's implicit approval for civilian housing at Weapons Station Earle has essentially fallen on deaf ears. Our contention is that the Department of Navy purposely misled the EPA on its "purpose and need" for wanting to open the 300 Laurelwood homes (now used by 6-8 Navy dependents) on the base to civilians and build a 2-mile access road to the development, and that the best way to not disturb the environment or expose potential renters is to not house civilians at the base.

NOPE already knows that the new road will traverse wetlands and, in fact, be within 100 feet of an EPA Superfund site (NPL Site #1) that was used from the 1940s thru the 1970s to burn spent ammunition. Soil tests of this "capped" site show high levels of arsenic in the water, and we assume there are other chemicals in the soil severely harmful to people exposed.

Thursday, CNN issued a report of a preponderence of men raised at Camp Lejeune (North Carolina) Marine training base from the 1950s thru 1980s who have breast cancer, owing to exposure to hazardous materials and contaminated tap water. (Others with breast cancer were exposed to smoke from "burn pits" in Iraq. As far as we know, Earle continues to burn spent ammunition as part of its routine mission, and this will not change once civilians move into Laurelwood housing next September.)

Again, it will be interesting to see how the Department of Navy handles Laurelwood renters' exposure to extremely harmful chemicals over the course of 30 years, starting in September 2010, when we presume civilians will be living within the base's exterior fence line and driving thru active areas of the base, separated by a mere 7-foot-high fence. Stay tuned as we await a formal response from the EPA on whether it will go back to the drawing board at Earle.

Contract military guards asleep...literally. Do we want this at NWS Earle?

Once the Department of Navy opens Laurelwood housing to civilians by its intended deadline of September, 2010, the base commander (whether current Capt. Maynard or a successor) and his security team will be responsible for the ensuing 30 years for policing the new 2-mile road from Rt. 34 to the homes, in addition to enhancing security and bringing on additional staff to keep civilians out of the fully functional areas of a facility w/300 bunkers of bombs and ammo.

Currently, the Department of the Navy uses contract security guards to supplement the seemingly thin staff of Naval police who patrol the base and cover 2nd- and 3rd-shift duties. The company that provides this service is Myers Investigative & Security, apparently of Dunn, NC. (Myers' legacy website is no longer available, and as is the case with many private military contractors, it is often difficult to trace the whereabouts of executives or contacts with these service providers).

Anyway, the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense, in this report issued in January of 2009 at the request of Congressman Chris Smith, found that Weapons Station Earle failed to prove background checks on Myers guards working within its lines, nor did it maintain proper oversight of these (essentially) rent-a-cops.

This becomes all the more unsettling in light of this Associated Press story, citing a report from the Commission on Wartime Contracting, today that an Army sergeant at a U.S. military base in Kuwait not only found a contract security guard leaning back in a chair, apparently sound asleep while on duty, but that defense auditors also found at least $6 billion of questionable charges where contractors are bilking the military.

Now what does a contract security guard asleep on the job in Kuwait, plus the bilking of the DoD have to do with guards at Earle or NOPE? As U.S. taxpayers...EVERYTHING!

Even bluer in the face, NOPE continues to argue that the costs to the Department of Navy to enforce the civilian occupancy portion of an outdated private military housing contract will not only nullify the Navy's presumed savings (the Navy says it will cost too much to buy out the deal and needs to open Laurelwood to civilian renters), but introduce the base to all sorts of threats to the core mission of transporting and storing explosives. The last thing we in the NOPE community need, outside of the financial devastation to our towns, is for a contract guard at Earle to fall asleep on the job and for something bad to happen at the base.

Seriously, you cannot make this stuff up...

APP Promos Oct. 27 NOPE Rally

Submitted by our Communications Director, Diana Piotrowski, and picked up in the Oct. 5 edition. Again, anyone in the communities surrounding Weapons Station Earle should attend this rally on October 27, 2009 at 730pm at Colts Neck High School.

Who are the Navy's appraisers anyway?

A lack of funding is the alleged stumbling block to the Department of the Navy's reluctance to buy out the Laurelwood housing contract at Naval Weapons Station Earle and prevent turning a section of the 11,000-acre mainside military weapons storage base in Colts Neck into an all-access civilian housing complex through 2040 and a potential terror target.

For those new to our case, the Department of the Navy argues it would be prohibitively expensive to settle with Laurelwood Homes, LLC (its developer who built the homes for military personnel in the late-1980s) on a buyout - one of two remedies proposed by NOPE; the other is outright cancellation (i.e. void the deal, as some contract language would facilitate)...on the order of $110-$120 million. Laurelwood's attorney, meanwhile, admits to the media that this Navy estimate is grossly inflated, and that his client - Teri Fischer - would take far less.

NOPE estimates the value of the 300 Laurelwood homes at $17-$20 million, based on several factors (housing upgrade and road construction costs to Ms. Fischer, contractual teardown of the homes and replenishment of the land to its "original state" in September 2040, depreciation, local real estate market values, environmental remediation, etc.)

Anyway...based a) on the disparity in NOPE's figures vs. the Department of the Navy's (no one has refuted our estimates, namely the Navy...and we are merely a grassroots coalition of volunteer efforts, not appraisal experts as you would expect the Navy would have), and citing b) some financial details about halfway into this September 22, 2009 report from The Hill on a landgrab over the Navy's shuttered Treasure Island base near San Francisco, it is pretty clear that U.S. Navy appraisers may have zero clue about property appraisal.

How else could you explain the roughly $100 million disparity between our estimate and the Navy's over the value of the existing 300 Laurelwood homes on the base, as well as its apparent $220-$230 million overestimate of the value of Treasure Island versus appraisers for both the City of San Francisco as well as the respected, independent KPMG?

In our view, it is just another example of how there is the Department of Navy is being guided or advised by people with no business sense, and that unfortunately, in our case to prevent civilians from ever residing at NWS Earle, the residents of the Monmouth County communities surrounding NWS Earle are left in the crosshairs of crippling behind-the-scenes deal-making.

Oct. 27 NOPE RALLY coming together

Keep your eyes posted within the next week for NOPE lawn signs promoting our rally at Colts Neck High School on Tuesday, October 27, 2009.

We encourage any supporters who want to put one on their lawn or somewhere in their neighborhood to email us at njNOPE@gmailcom or justsaynope@verizon.net, or to call Diana at 732.946.3474 or Bill at 732.544.8595. Otherwise, we are offering community service hours to any groups in need to those who can help us distribute flyers the weekends of Oct. 17 & 24.

NOPE in action at Tinton Falls Community Day

Courtesy of Fulton Wilcox, our Business Analyst, pictured next to NOPE Communications Director Diana Piotrowski, along with our Political Liaison Elaine Mann (black jacket), speaking with one of the many visitors to our table last Saturday afternoon. NOPE again appreciates the opportunity to meet new members of the community and bring them up to speed about our efforts to prevent civilian housing at Weapons Station Earle.

Here's an idea: tours of NWS Earle for area townspeople

After a brief visit to the Seal Beach Daily blog, it appears the Navy recently opened the California base for a "media familiarization tour" for Internet-based news organizations. What does this have to do with NOPE or civilian housing at Weapons Station Earle, you might ask?

Well, it signals that it is perhaps time for NWS Earle to invite not bloggers or internet media, but rather the residents of the base's primary host towns of Colts Neck, Tinton Falls and Middletown - to tour the base, from portside to mainside - a "Citizens Familiarization Tour," if you will.

If the U.S. Navy can invite bloggers into Seal Beach to watch the offloading of a Naval ship and "tour a super-fortified weapons storage facility to see the Tomahawks stacked there," among other events, why shouldn't Earle's commander be secure enough to present to the area townspeople (by and large mortified about security breaches and hundreds of millions of dollars of financial ruin that will stem from proposed civilian housing at Earle) a picture of what goes on at the base, perhaps to allay our fears about a presumed 1,500 civilians or more renters setting up residence on the base as soon as September 2010?

Perhaps it has to do with the Navy's bent to keep a shroud of secrecy over what's really going on behind the scenes as Earle prepares to clear the way for the civilian access road to the homes by the April 30, 2010 deadline, much as it did in written regulatory documents that fell well short of compliance with federal guidelines. Or maybe it is to conceal the fact that the U.S. Inspector General already found Earle significantly lacking in its oversight of contract security guards that it hires (at a steep price) to help watch over the base.

Whatever the reason, if nothing else, one could argue that the U.S. Navy should be secure enough about its own security to let the townspeople surrounding NWS Earle to take a tour and perhaps dispel NOPE's contention that things will go awry with a new civilian town popping up within the bases perimeter fence line by the middle of next year.

For NOPE's "new" followers

Between the comments and questions of visitors to our table at Tinton Falls Community Day, and an email exchange between the leaders of NOPE about publicizing the need for a jampacked rally at Colts Neck High on Tuesday, October 27 (730pm), it seems appropriate to offer a Cliff's Notes rehash for our "newer" followers a few reasons why the U.S. Navy plan to let civilians live on Weapons Station Earle by next September is a horrendous idea for your community.

• Opening an active military weapons facility (300 bunkers worth) to anyone is an obvious threat to your security (post-9/11) as an area resident, and will become a distraction to the base's primary mission (to provide munitions to the fleet) and expose Earle's guards to terror attacks: The Navy intends to build an unguarded 2-mile access route from Rt. 34 (about 500 yards south of the extremely well-guarded main gate in Colts Neck) thru the base and to the Laurelwood homes, which the builder can rent to anyone with the ability to pay the reported $1,600-$2,200 monthly rent, all without background checks. This will require, as written in our business case analysis, the Navy to handle (and provide funding for) all emergency matters, with Earle's personnel serving as the de facto police, fire and EMT squad for 300 civilian families from 30 years, through 2040 - when, by contract, the homes must be torn down anyway. To be sure, we have blogged here about plans by a North Carolina man and others to kill guards at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia.
• Taxes and Education: Introducing 300 new civilian families (with 2- thru 4-bedroom townhouses at Earle by next September, we can safely assume at last 1,500 residents at full capacity) not paying property taxes to either Colts Neck or Tinton Falls (the current host to K-thru-8 school-aged kids) will impose at least a $300 million school tax burden on Tinton Falls (or Colts Neck, Howell or some other surround district), depending on the outcome of a lawsuit filed by Tinton Falls over the state law that now allows Earle's Navy dependents to leave their district (Colts Neck) to attend Tinton Falls schools. Regardless of who ends up the host for Laurelwood school-aged kids in the end (right now, Tinton Falls taxpayers subsidize about $1 million per year of the cost to educate the 80-90 current military dependents residing in other homes at Earle), our own kids' education and public school quality will be greatly compromised.
• Civilian housing will require the host school district to construct new schools; we put the price tag at roughly $50 million for one new school. And we, the local residents, will be left holding the bag (i.e. unused school capacity) when the Laurelwood homes are leveled in 2040.
• Environmental questions: The EPA has yet to address our concern about the presumed overlap of the new road to Laurelwood with an EPA Superfund site that is, by law, not allowed to be disturbed. Otherwise, we are concerned about potential exposure of any civilian residents or visitors to harmful chemicals that are all part of what ultimately is a "dirty business" of handling military explosives and munitions.
• The U.S. Navy (someone in Washington, not anyone at Earle itself) is going thru with this civilian housing deal, presumably, SIMPLY TO GET OUT OF A BAD CONTRACT IT SIGNED IN THE 1980s AND TO AVOID THE APPROPRIATE ALTERNATIVE - VOID OR BUY OUT THE DEAL.
• The ONLY PARTY that will profit/benefit from letting civilians live at Weapons Station Earle is a private contractor based in the Seattle, Washington area - Laurelwood Homes, LLC. We estimate that Laurelwood has already taken in roughly $75 million on the first 20 years of the contract. Did the homes (built in the late 1980s and almost totally vacant for the better part of the last decade) really cost that much to build and maintain?

These are just a few of the reasons you must attend our rally on October 27 and show the U.S. Navy that, together, we will not stand for this!!!

Tinton Falls Day a HUGE Success - 60 New Supporters!

Kudos to Diana Piotrowski, Elaine Mann and Fulton and Susan Wilcox of NOPE for braving the elements this past Saturday and running our table at what turned out to be a successful Tinton Falls Community Day, and thanks to Beth Hessek, Chairperson of the event, and her committee, for allowing us to participate!

The hundreds of people we met in the borough appeared extremely receptive to our message, and 60 "new" supporters joined our mailing list. We also are excited about the interest shown by some of the groups in the Tinton Falls Community, namely from members of the EMT, Fire Department and area youth groups (i.e. Girl and Boy Scouts), and look forward to their participation in our October 27 rally - 730p at Colts Neck High.

Anyone wishing to join our mailing list can do so either by signing our online petition at the main-page bottom of our legacy website (http://www.orgsites.com/nj/nope/) or via email at justsaynope@verizon.net or njNOPE@gmail.com.