News
FMERPA Is Finished Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority To Take Its Place
By John Burton
EATONTOWN - It was time for the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority to fade into the sunset.
The authority, known by its somewhat unwieldy acronym FMERPA, held its last official meeting on Wednesday, August 18, bringing to closure what would be the first steps toward hopefully the redevelopment of the Fort Monmouth property as the U.S. Army continues to relocate its operations and prepares to close the facility.
"There's a lot that has been accomplished," observed Monmouth County Freeholder Director Lillian Burry, who served on the authority as its vice-chair. "And a lot yet to be done."
Governor Chris Christie recently signed into law legislation establishing the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA), to supercede FMERPA and to undertake the implementation of the master plan for the fort property, that FMERPA had been charged with drafting.
For Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo, who has been an authority member since the beginning, Fort Monmouth had played a significant role in his life and the life of the region since before he was born in Long Branch, he told his fellow authority members and the audience at Eatontown's borough hall. "The next step of my life," he added, "is how do we implement that plan we worked so hard on?"
The state Legislature in 2006 established FMERPA, in the aftermath of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission's decision, eventually supported by Congress and President George W. Bush, to include Fort Monmouth as one of the military installations that should be closed.
Officials, representing the area on the federal, state, county and local levels, all feared what the fort's closing could mean for the region and state's economies, when the private contracting jobs and civilian federal employees were relocated.
Fort Monmouth has 1,126 acres of property from Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport. And FMERPA, with a private contractor, enacted a master plan that over a 20-year period would allow the that property to be developed for a variety of uses, such residential and recreational, and for a wide array of businesses-retail, hospitality and hopefully high-tech industries which would be encouraged to come to the fort property, given its existing infrastructure.
This would offset the loss of existing jobs and those employees who would move to Maryland, where the Department of Defense was transferring Fort Monmouth's ongoing research and development and communications operations.
"It's such an integral part of our history, of who we are," Burry noted of the more than 90-year-old military installation.
While it is a sad development to lose the fort, observed authority member and Tinton Falls Mayor Michael Skudera, "I look forward to the day when there's commerce, jobs are coming in."
Robert Lucky, who has served as the authority's chair, talked about the exciting opportunity that this offered-"An opportunity to create a whole new town, if you will"-but was mindful of the responsibilities of what is being considered and the costs it would mean for the residents of the three towns.
"Here we have the opportunity to do something right," he said. But Lucky added he hasn't always been so thrilled with the process, including the monthly public meetings, where the authority conducted business and the public were given an opportunity to address the authority.
"These meetings have been largely disappointments to me because we've taken a lot of abuse here."
"When we first had public meetings I thought we would get a lot of public input," the chairman continued. And we have. But it hasn't all been very helpful."
The new law gives officials a 30-day window to establish the new 13-member (with nine voting members) authority. The administrative duties will fall to the state's Economic Development Authority (EDA), explained Frank Cosentino, FMERPA executive director. And his position and the other five, would fall under the EDA as well.
The EDA has advertised for applicants for those six positions, and Cosentino, who has been the only executive director, said he plans to seek it.
Fort Monmouth is scheduled to close by September 2011.
