From the Makah News Peninsula 4/22/1987
The impact of the shutdown is expected to be severe to the Neah Bay economy and the Makah Indian tribe. Tribal officials, the Air Force and congressional representatives are working together to study the impacts of the station`s closure and come up with a plan to use the station that could ease the economic impact.
"It`s like losing an old friend," said Makah Tribal Council Member George Bowechop. "They`ve been with us since the Second World War. A good relationship has been developed between our community and the Air Force. They`ve been very cooperative in a lot of community activities."
Rumors have circulated for months concerning the station`s closure. The Air Force still has not made an official announcement that the station will close. But in a letter to U.S. Rep. Al Swift, D-2nd District, an Air Force official confirmed that the radar station will be phased out.
Shawn Hanson, public affairs aide to Swift, said today that the Air Force said it will shut down the station in about 15 months.
Hanson said the Department of Defense office of economic adjustment is considering whether to pay for a study of the economic impact of the radar station`s closure and to recommend what to do with the station once it is deactivated. The Air Force pays the tribe $236,000 in annual rent for the site. A 10-year lease was negotiated in 1985 but, Hanson said, the Air Force reserved the right to break the lease with 30 days` notice. Hanson said the Air Force is being very cooperative. "They are at least making the attempt to make the transition a little easier for the tribe," she said.
Unemployment reaches as high as 50 percent among tribal members. In a letter to the Air Force, Swift and other Washington legislators as~d the Air Force to consider the economic impact its withdrawal will have. The letter was signed by Washington Congressmen Norm Dicks and Don Bonker. Washington Sens. Brock Adams and Dan Evans and Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inoye also signed the letter. Inoye is chairman of the Senate Select Committee on indian Affairs. Bowechop said the loss of Air Force personnel will have an impact on schools, health services, emergency services and local retailers.
The station provides what is known as "full surveillance radar," that scans outward toward the Pacific Ocean and upward. It is staffed by 81 Air Force personnel and 26 civilian employees on a 277-acre site just south of Cape Flattery near Hobuck Beach.
The radar will be turned over to the Federal Aviation Administration. About 15 FAA personnel will be assigned to operate the facility. Radar information will be automatically fed to the Air Force at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma. The site is among the oldest Air Force installations in the country. It became a radar site in 1950 after having served as an artillery spotting post in World War II.