BY R.E. SPEARS III/STAFF WRITER/res.spears@tidewaternews.com

NORFOLK—During its federally mandated environmental review, the U.S. Navy plans to press for economic and conservation partnerships that would make a proposed outlying landing field more attractive to the counties that are being asked to host it.

In the midst of its 30-month review of five potential OLF sites, the Navy will work with private industry, conservation groups and state and local governments to find a way to make hosting the proposed airfield a better deal economically, environmentally and politically for citizens in the affected areas.

Rear Adm. David Anderson called it "the art of the possible" during an interview in a Norfolk Naval Station annex office on Thursday.

The Navy, he said, will work with state and local governments, as well as private industry and organizations, to turn a project that is widely expected to be damaging to traditional ways of life into something that can actually benefit the community where it is finally located.

"We want to engage with the community ... to find a truly innovative solution that makes this a win-win situation," he said. "What I am asking for is to sit down and have a dialogue, a meaningful dialogue with the individuals who are going to be affected."

Anderson said he has already had productive talks with some individual landowners and with at least one environmental group, especially concerning one of the two North Carolina sites under consideration.

The Nature Conservancy, he said, is interested in the possibility of reintroducing longleaf pines on land it owns adjacent to the proposed Sandbanks site. Trees would be a perfect crop to surround the landing field, he said, as they would help reduce the jet noise that escapes into the surrounding community and cut down on the ambient light that could interfere with pilot training.

In fact, agriculture would be just the kind of activity that the Navy would encourage around the airfield, Anderson said. It would bring in no development or lights to conflict with the OLF's training mission, and it would allow existing landowners to continue to use their property as they have in the past.

Anderson pointed out that Oceana Naval Air Station encompasses farmland and said it would be easy to imagine farmers cultivating crops on land they continue to own "right up to the edge of the concrete" at the new facility.

"The Secretary of the Navy has given us more latitude than we have ever had" when it comes to negotiating a deal that will be beneficial to everyone, he said. For example, whereas early in the process the Navy had considered buying up to 50,000 acres to protect the OLF from encroachment, that number has steadily decreased. Today, Anderson said, "I don't care if I own any of this land."

The Navy's change of heart regarding ownership of the land beneath and surrounding the OLF also should help dispel concerns about the effect of removing tens of thousands of acres from local tax rolls, he said.

"We don't want to take any more land out of the tax base than we have to," he said.

Combined with his pledge to help state and local governments identify potential economic development opportunities that would mesh with an airfield, the new Navy policies are designed to improve the potential economic impact of an OLF on its host community, he said.

"I think I can make it where it has no effect or it has a positive effect," Anderson said. "But in order to get to that (point), I've got to be able to sit down and talk" to people in the affected communities.

The upcoming public scoping sessions will give the Navy a chance to make its case for the training airfield one-on-one with residents of the communities that are being considered.

Anderson asked that residents come to those meetings with an open mind.

He said he understands that the possibility of having an OLF next door — or in their back yard — is a very personal thing to area residents.

But, he said, the issue is "really personal to us, too." Navy pilots need a place to train for carrier landings safely, and they need to be able to do so without many of the sacrifices that have been required because of the congestion now experienced at existing Navy area airfields.

The Navy's need for a new OLF has come to have less to do with encroachment at its existing airfields than it does with the ability of those landing strips to accommodate all of the training that needs to take place, Anderson explained.

Fentress Naval Auxiliary Landing Field is at or beyond its capacity 64 percent of the time when it is most needed, he said.

Even removing every home and business that encroaches on the Chesapeake airfield would not solve the training problems that Navy pilots face, he said.

"It's no longer just an encroachment issue," he said. "It's a capacity issue."

Without a new OLF, he said, the capacity issue would remain unsolved, and the usefulness of Oceana would be impacted.

"The future viability of Oceana hinges on finding this OLF," Anderson said.

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BY R.E. SPEARS III/STAFF WRITER/res.spears@tidewaternews.com

WAKEFIELD—The race for John Warner's seat in the U.S. Senate began in earnest at the Wakefield Ruritan Club Wednesday, as hundreds of people turned out to eat shad and hear from the top three contenders for that job.

Former Virginia governors Mark Warner, a Democrat, and Jim Gilmore, a Republican, were joined on the stage at the 60th annual Shad Planking by Republican Bob Marshall, a member of the House of Delegates from Northern Virginia.

Each of the three men marked the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings and then set out to rally his troops in what has become Virginia political tradition.

Noting that "people don't trust either political party enough to write them a blank check," Warner told the crowd that his campaign would seek to engage Virginia's "radical centrists" during this election cycle.

Calling for change in Washington, D.C., he said, "We need to be proud of the direction our country is headed."

Warner suggested that, while his opponents "are competing to see who can be the most conservative," he better represents Virginia voters. With supporters for all three candidates waving signs in the audience, Gilmore gave a fiery speech in which he asked voters to consider his past performance when deciding whether to support him.

"When I ran for governor of Virginia, I told you what I was going to do, and I did it," he said.

He pointed to the reduction in the car tax and keeping Internet service tax-free as examples of his fidelity to his promises.

Gilmore said that issues such as energy independence and health care set Republicans and Democrats apart in this election. He promised to work for proposals that would lead America away from dependence on foreign oil and to fight against any effort to move toward taxpayer-funded universal health care. He also pledged to oppose setting a "date certain" for U.S. forces to leave Iraq.

Marshall, who is competing with Gilmore for the Republican nomination, pointed to his record in support of the definition of marriage as a union of one man and one woman as evidence of his being in step with Virginians, noting that his position was vindicated by Virginia voters during a referendum on the issue.

He noted that his position as a litigant against the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority had put him at odds with many of the General Assembly members attending Wednesday's event.

But the Virginia Supreme Court decision that essentially vacated the authority and a similar one in Hampton Roads had affirmed a bedrock principle of the American form of government.

"No taxation without representation," he thundered to an appreciative audience.

Marshall also acknowledged having seen "NO OLF" signs and stickers along the side of the road and on the Ruritan Club grounds.

He said a decision either way on locating a Navy training airfield at one of the proposed sites in Southampton, Sussex or Surry would have long-term effects on those counties.

He also blamed Virginia Beach officials for putting the state and the Navy in the position of potentially having to rely on Southside Virginia to come to the rescue of encroached Hampton Roads training facilities.

"What Virginia Beach did not do years ago is having effects on farmers around here, and that's not fair," he said, alluding to the fact that Virginia Beach had allowed development to threaten Oceana Naval Air Station's future.

Marshall also said that Oceana's future could be in doubt — regardless of any OLF decision — when the new generation of fighter aircraft begins to replace the F/A-18 Super Hornet in a few years.

He suggested that the Navy should prove that the master jet base still would be viable with the new fighters before forcing farmers to give up their land to build an OLF.

Neither former Gov. Jim Gilmore — the other Republican seeking nomination — nor former Gov. Mark Warner, the Democratic candidate for John Warner's senate seat, addressed the OLF issue during their Shad Planking remarks.

Gilmore stopped at a booth operated by Virginians Against the Outlying Landing Field as he was leaving the event. He spoke briefly to VAOLF members and traded business cards with Barry Steinberg, the attorney representing Southampton, Sussex, Surry and Greensville counties in their fight to derail the Navy's plans to locate an OLF in Southside Virginia.

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As human nature dictates, we have sought to ease the fears and uncertainties created by the proposal of an outlying landing field by doing the one thing that any rational, clear -minded adult would do: identify the party responsible for our predicament and drag them under the bus of public opinion.

We have ventured to lay blame on any person or entity even remotely associated with the possible construction of the OLF: The Navy, the cities of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, the governor and even "administrative errors" committed by the governor's secretary have been taken to task for leading us to the place we find ourselves today.

But like all rational, clear-minded adults we must eventually come to the conclusion that, no matter whose decision has led us down the dark and winding path we currently find ourselves, finding fault and laying blame does not help us navigate that path and lead us to our desired destination.

The actions we choose to take, rather than those of others whom we choose to blame, will ultimately lead to an outcome that we as a community find desirable.

The Navy has announced it will begin conducting its public scoping sessions the last week of April.

These meetings are intended to give the public an opportunity to voice all of its concerns surrounding the proposed OLF. Every possible environmental, socioeconomic and cultural impact that might be incurred due to the construction of a new landing field in our community must be addressed and investigated by the Navy in its legally required impact study. No issue is too great or too small, and every individual has an opportunity to participate and contribute to this critical process. It is also imperative that a large number of people turn out at these meetings.

We don't want the Navy to get the impression that only a handful of people care about the issue.

They must know that the entire community is concerned about the potential impacts of an OLF.

This is your opportunity to be heard. One person, one voice, can make a difference. If you have an idea or concern that you would like the Navy to consider in its selection of a landing field site, there are many avenues through which to do so.

Virginians Against the Outlying Landing Field has established a Web site with all the pertinent information regarding submission of concerns or questions.

Please visit www.novaolf.com where you can submit your ideas to us directly or find the various other methods by which you can communicate your ideas directly to the Navy.

Remember that your actions — not just the actions of others — will help determine whether we achieve our desired outcome.

Tony Clark
Chairman, Virginians Against the Outlying Landing Field
Capron

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BY R.E. SPEARS III/STAFF WRITER/res.spears@tidewaternews.com

NORFOLK—Rear Adm. David Anderson believes that by the end of the Navy's environmental review of five sites under consideration for the proposed outlying landing field, some of the host counties will actually be competing with each other for the chance to host the controversial training facility.

Considering the virulent opposition the idea has encountered thus far, such a statement may seem to be in the realm of fantasy to many involved in the process. But Anderson and other Navy officials believe they can apply the lessons they learned in fighting for a now-abandoned Washington County, N.C., site to build support for such a facility in one of the locations they are now considering in Virginia and North Carolina.

Things have changed since the Navy first identified that North Carolina location as its favored place to put an airstrip that would be used for field carrier landing practice, he said during an interview in his office at an annex to Naval Station Norfolk on Thursday.

The Navy's operational needs have changed, its readiness requirements have increased and Chesapeake's Fentress Naval Auxiliary Landing Field has become more congested with pilots training to land on aircraft carriers.

“It's no longer just an encroachment issue,” he said. “It's a capacity issue.”

One thing that has not changed in that period, he said, is the Navy's determination to find a place to satisfy its needs for safely training its pilots. “This is a valid requirement, not just for the Navy but for the nation,” he said of the OLF. “The future viability of Oceana hinges on finding this OLF.”

See Sunday's print edition of The Tidewater News for more coverage of Thursday's interview with Anderson.

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BY R.E. SPEARS III/STAFF WRITER/res.spears@tidewaternews.com

RICHMOND—With a big boost from Southampton County, state officials expect next week to certify Virginia's 1,000th Century Farm.

In fact, according to Marion Horsley, a spokesperson at the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences, a stack of certifications waiting to be mailed within a week or so will bring the total number of Virginia farms participating in the program to 1,009.

"Southampton is going to lead the troops," she said. "Unquestionably, they will be No. 1."

That's good news to Bruce Phillips, whose two Sebrell farms were added to the program in 2007 and who has been a major force in marketing it locally.

"I'm interested in maintaining Southampton County's history," he said during an interview Monday in his circa 1740s farmhouse. "If we don't make people aware of what's here, they'll take it for granted."

Honoring history is what the Century Farm program is all about.

"Agriculture has been the backbone of Virginia for literally centuries," Horsley said Tuesday. The VDACS program recognizes those farms that have been in operation for at least 100 consecutive years.

Those who qualify "can have their farm sort of enshrined," she said. The state sends owners of qualifying farms an aluminum sign, a congratulatory letter and a certificate signed by the governor and the state's agriculture commissioner.

Though being certified to join the ranks of Century Farm is largely a matter of pride of heritage for most farmers, in Southampton it has taken on an added level of urgency as citizens look for ways to fight off a proposed Navy outlying landing field.

Phillips said his own decision to seek the designation was made before the Navy ever announced its plans to study potential airfield sites in Southampton County. Nonetheless, that announcement last summer convinced Phillips and others to redouble their efforts to get as many of their neighbors into the program as possible.

There is no guarantee that a preponderance of Century Farms would deter the Navy from building its field carrier landing practice facility in Southampton. In fact, Navy spokesmen have said many farmers still would be able to cultivate crops, even within the OLF's buffer zones.

But OLF opponents hope that the historic nature of these old farms will play a part in deterring the Navy from locating in Southampton, Sussex or Surry counties.

"We're trying to retain the rural nature of Southampton County," Phillips said. "That's why people want to move here."

Bruce and Gayle Phillips' Sunnyside Farms encompass the old John I. Turner Farm and the Westbrook River Farm in Sebrell. Both have been named Century Farms.

His connection to the history of both the farm and the surrounding community is evident in every room of the restored farmhouse. Photos and drawings hanging on the walls depict the home and its inhabitants generations ago.

Scattered throughout the living area are cases full of Native American projectile points and other artifacts and fossils that have been found around the farm. Even more such archeological delights are stored in display cases, coolers, boxes and bags in his basement.

The finds are the results of decades spent walking around the farm with his eyes on the ground, Phillips said. It's a perfect hobby for the former Virginia Wesleyan College history major.

"If you don't have a sense of your history, you don't have a sense of where you're going," he said. "I'm proud of Southampton County. It's a place you can be proud of."

Phillips said he is also proud of — and thankful to — the local folks who have taken the time to get their farms certified in the Century Farm program.

With 58 farms so designated as of March 31, Southampton leads the state. Rockingham County, which led in the count last year, has dropped far behind.

But Phillips isn't ready to stop pressing yet. "We're shooting for 100," he said.

Horsley said more Southampton farms will be added next week.

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BY R.E. SPEARS III/STAFF WRITER/res.spears@tidewaternews.com

WAKEFIELD—Opponents of the Navy’s proposed outlying landing field got a word of support Wednesday from one of the candidates seeking to take over as Virginia’s junior senator upon the retirement of U.S. Sen. John Warner.

Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-13th) was the only one of three candidates for the Senate seat to address the OLF issue during remarks at the Wakefield Ruritan Club’s 60th annual Shad Planking.

During a brief speech before hundreds of people on hand for one of the state’s premier annual political events, Marshall acknowledged having seen “NO OLF” signs and stickers along the side of the road and on the Ruritan Club grounds.

He said a decision either way on locating a Navy training airfield at one of the proposed sites in Southampton, Sussex or Surry would have long-term effects on those counties. He also blamed Virginia Beach officials for putting the state and the Navy in the position of potentially having to rely on Southside Virginia to come to the rescue of encroached Hampton Roads training facilities.

“What Virginia Beach did not do years ago is having effects on farmers around here, and that’s not fair,” he said, alluding to the fact that Virginia Beach had allowed development to threaten Oceana Naval Air Station’s future.

Marshall also said that Oceana’s future could be in doubt — regardless of any OLF decision — when the new generation of fighter aircraft begins to replace the F/A-18 Super Hornet in a few years.

He suggested that the Navy should prove that the master jet base still would be viable with the new fighters before forcing farmers to give up their land to build an OLF.

Neither former Gov. Jim Gilmore — the other Republican seeking nomination — nor former Gov. Mark Warner, the Democratic candidate for John Warner’s senate seat, addressed the OLF issue during their Shad Planking remarks.

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To the Editor:

As a Southampton County taxpayer and member of a family that is devoted to the “No OLF” campaign, I decided it was my responsibility to attend the meeting held against the Virginia OLF at Southampton High School on April 2.

Before attending this meeting, I personally felt that I knew all of the reasons why we, as Southampton County residents, should pull together to prevent the OLF from coming to our rural area. The obvious ones include: 1) Our land (whether family-owned for generations or currently being farmed and/or inhabited). 2) The noise.

However, for those who are criticizing this campaign or sitting back and thinking that it won’t affect them or their families, my plea is to you: Attend one of these meetings. Then, you, too, will learn some concerns for our entire area that you may not have even pondered. For example:

1. If one of the three possible sites in our area is chosen by the Navy for the OLF, you will be affected. Even if your home is not a part of the 30,000 acres required for this outlying landing field, the jets from Oceana may still have to fly over your house to reach the site. It will not be a quiet time for any of us.
2. If the Navy does take over one of these sites, the Commonwealth of Virginia will not be able to collect any taxes for this land because it will be owned by the federal government. Now at first glance, you may rejoice and say “Yea, less property taxes.” But, this will cause a loss in revenue for our county and possibly affect funding for our schools, highways, etc. And this, in turn, may possibly raise taxes for our residents.

3. This can hurt us environmentally in that we don’t know how it will affect air pollution or even our well water. Our wildlife, our farm land and our livestock will be in danger. Vast amounts of trees will be cut down to be replaced with concrete. Does this sound like Southampton County?

4. This can be a deterrent to our health. Studies have shown cardiovascular problems and increases in blood pressure. And you can only imagine the hearing loss.

Our biggest concern is that we, as neighbors and friends, should all be pulling together to fight this. Get involved, get informed, attend the next OLF meeting, or go to the Web site for more information on how you and your family will be affected. There is a great group of people fighting for all of us, but we need to join them.

There is power in numbers. It is not us against the United States Navy. We support our Navy and would like to work with them to find a resolution to this problem. But the answer we want to hear is not jet noise.

Kim Pope
Capron

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BY WENDY WALKER/STAFF WRITER/wendy.bryant@tidewaternews.com

FRANKLIN—The Franklin City Council will vote Monday on a resolution to support Southampton County’s opposition to a Navy outlying landing field.

The council was asked in March by Lynne Rabil of Franklin Southampton Futures to support the OLF opposition effort. Mayor Jim Councill had asked for a copy of Southampton County’s resolution.

Vice Mayor Raystine Johnson had suggested the item be placed on the April agenda.

Also Monday, Franklin Fire Chief Vince Holt will make a presentation regarding the pandemic flu annex to the city’s emergency operations plan.

The police department will also present information regarding the replacement of some hardware and software items associated with the E911 system.

The department will request approval from council to lease/purchase equipment and software to maintain the current level of service in regard to its E911 phone system, dispatch software records, management software, and other related hardware. The equipment is almost 6 years old, according to information from the police department.

Funding for the five-year lease is available in the department’s budget.

The City Council will also consider approval of an agreement “relating to and defining the relationships between the various communities and the Early Childhood Commission.”

The agreement includes Southampton County and Franklin, and will eventually be amended to include Isle of Wight County, which will soon become a member. A presentation on the matter will be made by City Manager Bucky Taylor and Early Childhood Commission Director Connie Burgess.

The meeting takes place at 7 p.m.

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BY R.E. SPEARS III/STAFF WRITER/res.spears@tidewaternews.com

WASHINGTON—Local representatives attending a Capitol Hill meeting to drum up support in their fight against a proposed Navy airfield left with little confidence that they will receive the backing of Virginia’s two senators.

Elected and appointed officials representing Southampton, Sussex, Surry and Greensville counties all headed to the nation’s capital Thursday to lobby for help against the outlying landing field from U.S. Sens. Jim Webb and John Warner and U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-3rd).

“We’re in search of a champion to help us preserve the only way of life we have ever known,” Southampton County Administrator Michael Johnson told Scott near the end of the hour-and-a-half meeting.

They did, in fact, get a strong commitment — to do what is necessary to keep Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia.

Attorney Barry Steinberg seemed disappointed, if not surprised, at the reaction of Washington officials to his suggestion that Oceana might just be too outdated to continue to be an effective East Coast master jet base. Steinberg has been hired by the four counties to help them during the Navy’s federally required environmental review of three sites proposed in Virginia and two in North Carolina.

“Protect Oceana — that’s the name of the game — as inadequate as it is,” he said as the group filed out of a conference room in the Russell Senate Office Building. Steinberg had made the case to Webb, to Scott and to Warner’s aides that building another field carrier landing practice airfield for Navy fighter pilots would not solve Oceana’s encroachment issues, and he wondered whether problems at the Virginia Beach base would only get worse with the next generation of fighter aircraft.

He suggested that legislators encourage the Navy to consider the West Coast — where the master jet base is located hundreds of miles from the San Diego-based fleet — as a model for a potential solution to the jet noise/population growth problem.

“Those aircraft can be in a whole lot of places without jeopardizing what happens to the fleet,” he said.

Webb, who was on hand for about 15 minutes of the meeting, said he sympathized with those who worry Virginia counties will have to sacrifice land and quality of life for the OLF in exchange for little return in the way of economic benefit. But, he said, “If we are going to keep the aircraft carriers in Virginia, we are going to have to have facilities where (the pilots) can train.”

“We need you to help us ... find the right place ... where this is compatible with keeping the Navy in Virginia,” Webb added.

“At least we brought the message,” Southampton County’s Johnson said after the meeting in a sentiment that was shared by both of the Virginia General Assembly delegates who helped organize it.

Airfield opponents may not have gotten the commitment to fight that they had sought from their representatives in Washington, Del. William Barlow, D-Smithfield, said, “But it’s still helpful to have direct contact.”

If nothing else, the broad geographic base of those who traveled to the capital made an impression on Washington insiders.

“It’s very unusual, in my experience,” said Webb Chief of Staff Paul Reagan.

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It seems that at every turn, the battle lines in the fight to dissuade the United States Navy from building a practice airfield within earshot of our area don’t seem to get redrawn. Rather, they get reinforced.

Blunt force or determination — as opposed to deft maneuvering — seem to be the key strategic weapons in this fight.

Two weeks ago, opponents of the Navy’s desire to build a second landing field that would allow pilots to practice landings and takeoffs to simulate such maneuvers on aircraft carriers at night were told it’s a fight they will have to wage pretty much on their own.

“You’ll have to organize yourselves,” Surry Board of Supervisors Chairman M. Sherlock Holmes told the audience assembled for a special forum on the Navy’s auxiliary airfield. “It’s up to you now, from this point on, to organize locally.”

An aide to U.S. Rep. Robert C. Scott (D-03) also attended the meeting, making his boss’ stand known for the first time. The aide said the congressman’s “official position right now is that he will support the Surry County resolution (against the OLF) that was passed. As long as that is the county’s position, he will support it.”

None of the local governments want the OLF in their boundaries. Southampton County supervisors were the first to denounce the plan. Other governments have followed suit. Southampton and Sussex counties share two other sites under consideration by the Navy. North Carolina has two on the list, as well. All five sites will be targets of an intensive two-year environmental review that began in earnest last week.

And the study is where the battle is expected to be waged.

Then on Thursday in Washington, D.C., U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, soon to be the commonwealth’s senior senator, told a contingent of local leaders that Virginia gets $43 billion a year in benefits from Department of Defense installations in the state. He didn’t say so specifically, but Webb made it clear that enormous boost to the state economy would be protected.

Yet, while top state officials have stated publicly that they won’t force an airfield on those who don’t want it, the Navy continues to outline its need for another practice field. The Navy has also made it clear that it’s not looking at other locations than those already announced. That fact must be disturbing at some level to those who so vehemently oppose construction of the field that will bring, in their opinion, additional noise, the lowering of property values, threats to wildlife and possible destruction of historical landmarks. Thus far, for all the opposition mounted, the Navy seems ready to continue searching here.

Again, the reinforcements are being shipped en masse to the battle lines.

It’s almost as if the Navy knows it ultimately holds the cards needed to shoot the moon and win the hand.

Still, the opposition wages its fight.

At the same meeting two weeks ago, Barry Steinberg, the attorney hired to represent Southampton and Surry and the other counties under consideration for the OLF, was introduced. He told the audience that “In a democracy, the will of the people counts.”

Then he broached an avenue not heavily traveled: He suggested contacting politicians running for John Warner’s U.S. Senate seat.

“Whoever is running for Senate ought to have to take a position,” Steinberg said.

Airfield opponents also should raise every objection and concern they can think of during the environmental impact study period required under the National Environmental Policy Act, Steinberg said.

Delegate William K. Barlow, whose 64th District includes Surry and a portion of Southampton, is on record as saying, “Those of us who are local legislators are going to stand up for our constituents.”

He added the battle cry: “United we stand; divided we fall,” Barlow said. “This is like a battlefield, and we’ve got to have our horses coming from several directions.”

At last week’s anti-OLF meeting at Southampton High School, Barlow again sounded like a general aligning troops.

He said the Navy’s attempts to build in Washington County, N.C., were thwarted by opponents there.

“This is going to be a tougher battle than they had,” he said. “The Navy is going to be smarter this time.”

Barlow said citizens and elected officials would need to take advantage of every weapon in their arsenal — political support, grassroots efforts and legal wrangling — to fight the Navy’s plans. “We don’t care which weapon wins.”

But both sides has weapons aimed at the other.

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BY WENDY WALKER/STAFF WRITER/wendy.bryant@tidewaternews.com

FRANKLIN—The City Council on Monday will consider adopting a resolution supporting Southampton County's position opposing a proposed Navy outlying landing field in the county.

That resolution has not been made public. Mayor Jim Councill said Thursday that no discussions regarding financial support have been held.

The issue has been pushed on two fronts.

At a council meeting in March, Lynne Rabil of Franklin-Southampton Futures asked the City Council to join Southampton's fight to keep the Navy's practice landing field from being built in the region.

Although Southampton, Surry, Sussex and Greensville counties have all banded together, Rabil said the city had been quiet on the issue. She suggested it join the "governmental coalition" that has formed to strengthen the voice of the people that the OLF would affect.

The matter was also raised Monday night at a forum for City Council candidates. Ward 1 and 2 candidates said they believe the city should contribute financially to support the opposition efforts.

The question was posed during a question-and-answer portion of the forum.

Charles Wrenn, Ward 2 councilman and the only incumbent on the panel, said, "Yes, we should support that effort of our neighboring county."

"This will have a tremendous impact on us, also. I'm very much in favor of the effort." Ward 2 challenger Benny Burgess agreed.

"One thing we have to realize, though, is if the federal government decides we need an outlying landing field here, we're going to get an outlying landing field here."

He said should that occur, the region would be better off to negotiate with the Navy.

"At this point, I say, 'fight,'" he said.

Dan Hoctor, seeking the Ward 1 seat that is being vacated by Joe Scislowicz, echoed the other candidates' remarks.

"It will directly affect our locality as well," he said.

He said that he understood Franklin officials haven't publicly spoken up yet about where they stand.

"We should have a united front against it," Hoctor said.

Barry Cheatham, another challenger for Ward 1, noted his familiarity with the noise because of his job route.

"I work near Oceana," he said, "and freedom gets mighty loud. We should support the communities around us to keep (an OLF) out."

According to Southampton County Administrator Mike Johnson, Greensville County has appropriated $20,000 for this year and the next against the fight.

"We've also had some calls from Isle of Wight County," he said. "They have inquired about it and are looking into it."

He said any help from neighbors would be welcomed.

Tony Clark, chairman of Virginians Against an Outlying Landing Field, said that Franklin should be looking at the opportunity to partner with the county because of its impact there as well.

Noting that the planes aren't going to "just drop out of nowhere," he said, "there will be a flight pattern — they have to fly over someone."

He said the question of whether Franklin should contribute to the cause shouldn't be one asked of candidates — that he wants to know where current City Council members stand on the matter.

"The (city) leadership has been absent on this issue," he said.

Clark said that, in addition to Isle of Wight County, Prince George County is beginning to show some interest in the matter, as well as James City County, because of the potential flight pattern.

"We need everyone to come on board," he said.

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By R.E. SPEARS III/Staff Writer/res.spears@tidewaternews.com

WASHINGTON—Political leaders and opponents of a Navy outlying landing field heard something Thursday that they probably already knew.

Any strategy to fight the Navy's proposed OLF that suggests the sacrifice of Oceana Naval Air Station will earn little support in Washington.

A U.S. senator, two senators' aides and a congressman all made it clear during a meeting here Thursday afternoon that they could not support OLF opponents at the expense of losing Oceana from Virginia Beach.

The Commonwealth of Virginia gets $43 billion a year in benefits from Department of Defense installations in the state, Sen. Jim Webb told the 25 or so who attended the meeting in a stuffy, packed conference room in the Russell Senate Office Building.

"If we're going to put Oceana on the table, frankly it is going to be hard to get a consensus on that," added U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-3rd). "Giving up on Oceana is going to be heavy lifting."

Scott's district includes Surry County, one of three Virginia locations being studied by the Navy for the "field carrier landing practice" facility. Southampton and Sussex counties share the other two Virginia sites under consideration. Two others are located in North Carolina.

Scott, Webb and members of their staffs attended the meeting with members of U.S. Sen. John Warner's staff and a representative from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's office.

Local officials who made the trip included Del. Roslyn Tyler (D-75th), Del. William Barlow (D-64th), most of Southampton County's and Sussex County's boards of supervisors, a member of Surry's Board of Supervisors and county administrators and other officials from Southampton, Sussex, Surry and Greensville counties.

Barry Steinberg, a Washington, D.C., lawyer hired by the four counties, made brief presentations to both Webb and Scott. Both Barlow and Tyler also made impassioned pleas for support. Steinberg argued that Oceana "is broken," as evidenced by the report from the last Base Realignment and Closure Commission. Those problems will not be solved by a new OLF, he said.

"We could spend $100 million putting an OLF in Southampton, Sussex or Surry County and wake up five years from now and realize we've got to move the master jet base because the next generation of fighter won't work in Oceana."

Photo by Doug Chesson

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BY R.E. SPEARS III/STAFF WRITER/res.spears@tidewaternews.com

FRANKLIN—Today’s Federal Register contains the Navy’s official Notice of Intent to pursue environmental studies of five potential locations for an outlying landing field.

The notice, which appears on page 19,196 of today’s copy of the federal government’s daily document of regulations, agency actions and congressional actions, is available from the Federal Register’s homepage on the Internet: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html. Search for “OLF” and click on the appropriate link under “Notice of Intent To Terminate the Draft Supplemental.” The full listing is available as an HTML or a PDF document. A summary is also available.

The Navy’s notice serves both to terminate the draft environmental impact statement that the service had prepared in support of five potential sites in North Carolina and to officially notify citizens and their representatives of the Navy’s interest in five new sites in North Carolina and Virginia.

The Navy abandoned plans for a “field carrier landing practice” facility at its preferred Washington County, N.C., location in January, when congressional political opposition made it obvious that the airfield could not get funded there.

At the time, the Navy announced it would be studying two new North Carolina sites and three new Virginia sites for their suitability for the OLF, which would be used to train pilots of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and other aircraft for landing on aircraft carriers.

Currently, the pilots perform most of their training at Naval Auxiliary Landing Field Fentress in Chesapeake. “While NALF Fentress will continue to provide necessary support for field carrier landing practice and other training requirements,” the Navy stated in a press release today, “this landing field alone cannot fully support the training requirements of aircraft based and transient from Naval Air Station Oceana and Naval Station Norfolk Chambers Field and does not provide optimal landing conditions for FCLP training, especially nighttime FCLP.”

The OLF would include an 8,000-foot runway, an air traffic control tower and other support buildings. The facility also would require a buffer zone of around 30,000 acres because of the noise levels associated with the training.

Under federal law, the Navy must complete extensive environmental and socioeconomic reviews of each of the sites it is considering and must also examine the option of taking no action at all.

That analysis, required by the National Environmental Policy Act, is expected to take about 30 months to complete and will include a variety of opportunities for public input. To that end, public scoping meetings are planned in each of the communities that would be impacted most directly by such a facility.

Southampton and Sussex counties would host the so-called Dory and Mason sites. The Navy plans a scoping meeting April 30 at Sussex Central High School and on May 1 at Southampton High School. Surry and Prince George counties would be impacted by the Navy’s Cabin Point site, and meetings are set for April 29 at J.E.J. Moore Middle School in Disputanta and on May 7 at Surry Central High School in Dendron.

North Carolina’s Sandbanks site would most directly impact Gates and Hertford counties, and the Navy has set a scoping meeting for May 2 at Gates County High School. The Hale’s Lake site in North Carolina encompasses land in Camden and Currituck counties. The Navy has set a meeting in Currituck for April 28 at the Currituck County Center and in Camden on May 5 at Camden County High School.

All of the public scoping meetings are planned from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and are to be held using an open house format, according to the Navy’s notice. They are seen as forums in which the Navy can receive written comments or concerns that should be addressed in the environmental impact statement.

The service must consider all questions and comments received in writing as part of this process.

Comments can be made in the following ways: (1) Written statements submitted to Navy representatives at the public scoping open houses; (2) written statements mailed to Commander, Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic, 6506 Hampton Boulevard, Norfolk, Virginia 23508, Attn: Code EV OLF Project Manager; and (3) written statements submitted via the Web site at http://www.olfeis.com/. All written comments must be postmarked by June 7.

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BY R.E. SPEARS III/STAFF WRITER/res.spears@tidewaternews.com

COURTLAND—Keeping a proposed outlying landing field out of Southampton, Sussex or Surry counties will require citizens and elected officials to come together as they rarely have in the past, opponents were told Wednesday night.

But if they begin to feel the task is impossible, they should remember the story of David and Goliath and take heart from the modern version that played out in January, when the Navy finally gave up its quest for an airfield in Washington County, N.C.

“It's David 1, Goliath 0 in that county,” Barry Steinberg told a group of about 500 that gathered at Southampton High School under the leadership of Virginians Against the Outlying Landing Field, a citizens' group that has organized to fight on behalf of residents of the three Virginia counties that are among five locations the Navy has said are potential sites for its airstrip.

Steinberg is a Washington, D.C., attorney who has been hired to represent the three county governments, along with that of Greensville County during the Navy's federally required environmental review of the sites.

He was one of several featured speakers during a two-hour meeting designed to get citizens involved in the two-year process.

State legislators and aides to the two congressmen who represent the targeted counties also were on hand to assure those attending that they will fight alongside their constituents.

“I'm the proud godmother of Fort Pickett,” said state Sen. Louise Lucas (D-18th). “But I resist the idea of being the godmother of the OLF.”

Lucas was joined onstage by Del. William Barlow (D-64th) and Del. Roslyn Tyler (D-75th), both of whom joined her in speaking forcefully against putting an OLF in their districts.

State Sen. Frederick Quayle (R-13th) was hurt in a fall a few days ago and was unable to attend but sent a statement that was read by Tony Clark, chairman of the VAOLF group.

Quayle noted in his statement that he had attended an August meeting at the high school after it was announced that Gov. Timothy Kaine had submitted 10 Virginia sites to the Navy as possible locations for the practice landing strip.

According to the statement that was read Wednesday, Quayle recalled that at that meeting a governor's assistant had promised that no Virginia locality would be forced to host an OLF.

“I expect and will demand that the governor stand by that promise,” he said in his statement.

Opponents also received commitments of support from aides for congressmen Randy Forbes (R-4th) and Bobby Scott (D-3rd). Both congressmen were in Washington and unable to attend Wednesday's meeting, but the statements their aides read included promises to stand arm-in-arm with their constituents.

“I do not believe an OLF should be forced on a locality in my district that does not want it, and as ranking member of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, I do not plan to support funding for an OLF if, at the end of the Navy's process, Southampton and Sussex determine that they do not want it” said Forbes' military liaison, Jason Gray, reading from his boss' prepared statement.

The only legislators who have yet to weigh in on the issue are Virginia's senators, John Warner and Jim Webb. Warner has announced he will retire at the end of this term, which means he would be out of office by the time the Navy chooses a favored site. Webb has remained silent on the issue, but a group of local government officials, organized by Tyler, will visit him in Washington next week to press its case against the airfield.

Speakers on Wednesday pointed out that both men could be valuable allies for OLF opponents, by virtue of the fact that each has served as secretary of the Navy.

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BY R.E. SPEARS III/STAFF WRITER/res.spears@tidewaternews.com

FRANKLIN—The first major public meeting of a group that organized to fight the Navy's plans for an outlying landing field promises to be a Who's Who of Virginia politicians.

With commitments from all four of the area's state legislators and representatives from the offices of two congressmen, tonight's meeting of the group Virginians Against the Outlying Landing Field will offer voters from Southampton, Surry and Sussex counties a rare chance to see all of their state representatives in one place.

Perhaps even rarer is the fact that all of those politicians — Democrats and Republicans — are expected to agree on a point of policy: The Navy should not build an OLF where it is not wanted.

Tony Clark, chairman of the VAOLF group that has formed to oppose the Navy's three potential Virginia sites, said Tuesday he is excited to have the state legislators and representatives of their federal counterparts committed to be present.

Each will have an opportunity to address what is expected to be a large crowd of citizens from all three of the potentially impacted counties. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Southampton High School in Courtland.

Clark said he had received commitments from each of the area's elected officials serving in the Virginia General Assembly: Del. Roslyn Tyler (D-75th), Del. William K. Barlow (D-64th), Sen. Louise Lucas (D-18th) and Sen. Fred Quayle (R-13th).

Congressional representatives also will be on hand from the offices of Rep. Randy Forbes (R-04th) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-03rd), he said. The congressmen both will be in Washington, D.C., during the meeting.

Each of the six legislators has personally or through a representative committed to support the OLF opponents in their fight against the Navy. Tonight's meeting will give them a chance to do so in a very public setting, before what is expected to be a crowd of hundreds, including regional and state newspapers and television stations.

That kind of support is invaluable to Clark and his group, which hopes to render as unpalatable choices the three rural Virginia sites that are among the five locations the Navy is considering for the airfield.

Clark and other members of the group have come to realize that legislative support can be a vital component of their strategy against the Navy.

"There is a political dimension to this that cannot be ignored, at the commonwealth's level and at the federal level," Barry Steinberg told a recent gathering in Surry.

Steinberg has been hired to represent the three Virginia counties in their campaign. He also will speak during tonight's meeting to help citizens understand how to be effective in countering the Navy during the next couple of years.

"There's going to be a lot of emotion at this meeting," Clark said Tuesday. "But emotion is not going to get anything done. We want to get the people there, get them excited and get them educated about the process."

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BY R.E. SPEARS III/STAFF WRITER/res.spears@tidewaternews.com

COURTLAND—Members of a citizens' group that formed to fight a proposed Navy airfield will hear from the attorney hired to represent their counties during a special public meeting tonight.

Barry P. Steinberg, managing partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kutak Rock LLP, is expected to discuss the role that citizens can play during the Navy's environmental studies of five potential outlying landing field sites.

The meeting is planned for 7 p.m. at Southampton High School and will be hosted by Virginians Against the Outlying Landing Field, a citizens' group that has organized to rally against the Navy and protect the three counties that would be most directly impacted by the airfield.

Tony Clark, chairman of the group, said Tuesday that he considers it "a great thing" that Southampton, Sussex and Surry counties have pooled their resources to hire Steinberg to represent them during the environmental impact studies.

"Barry Steinberg has years and years of experience in this exact issue," he said in a telephone interview. "He can help us navigate the waters" of the National Environmental Policy Act, which governs the Navy's two- to three-year review.

Steinberg has met with the governing bodies of the counties he will represent and has answered some questions from the public about his role and that of citizens in the review process.

He will be taking his direction from county officials in each of the three affected localities, which, he said, have agreed "they would not shoot at each other and would not poach one another."

But citizens' groups can have an important role in the process, he said, and his appearance at tonight's VAOLF meeting is designed to help people understand how to be effective in their opposition to the Navy's plans.

Residents of the rural counties under consideration by the Navy need to make their opposition to the OLF about something other than not wanting it in their back yards, he told a group in Surry last week. The Navy "got that message before they ever got here," he said.

Instead, opponents should get to work identifying any potential impacts that could be expected from construction of the 2,000-acre airfield that would serve as a training facility for jet pilots qualifying to land on aircraft carriers.

From the noise impact on livestock reproduction to the possibility of reduced land values for property outside the OLF's 30,000-acre buffer zone to the loss of tax revenue for land taken off the tax rolls, Steinberg said, citizens and county officials need to put forward every question they can think of for the Navy to address in its review.

"Ask questions about what you're concerned about," he said in an interview following a private meeting with the Southampton Board of Supervisors on Friday. Those issues could be noise, the loss of the rural lifestyle, traffic concerns or just about anything else that contributes to people's "relationship to the land."

"The 'quality of the human environment' is the heart and soul of what NEPA is about," he said, describing as "fuzzy" the types of issues that could be involved and the importance each of those issues could carry in the process.

"NEPA is fuzzy," he said. "It's not deliberately fuzzy; it's fuzzy because of what it's being asked to do."

In fact, the Navy's own presentation in Surry last week identified a broad array of resources typically studied for potential environmental impacts during a NEPA survey.

Physical resources studied range from soils and waters to noise, air quality and cultural resources. Potential biological resource impacts could include vegetation, wildlife and endangered species. Socioeconomic factors including population, housing, transportation and community services also could be part of the study process, Navy representatives said.

But Steinberg said Friday that public input still would be vital to identifying all of the potential impacts that the Navy needs to study.

"Every time I've worked one of these issues, there's somebody who's brought up something I never would have thought about," he said.