A Rough Road Once the Pentagon Pulls the Plug
BLYTHEVILLE, ARK. --In 1991, this amiable Mississippi delta town suffered the same blow that struck a host of American communities last week, when the Pentagon declared that Eaker Air Force Base would be shuttered. The decision was devastating, but now, 14 years later, this area is showing signs of recovery. Make no mistake, Eaker is still sorely missed. But Blytheville has crawled part of the way back, thanks to a combination of hard work, good luck, state aid, and some tough choices--including tax increases.
When the Air Force pulled out in 1992, more than 700 civilian jobs and about 3,500 military personnel and their families went with it--typical of the kind of impact base closings can have in rural areas (some urban-area bases were on land that has become quite valuable). Community leaders in this town of 18,000 and its smaller neighbor, Gosnell, moved quickly to redevelop the base, a Cold War mini-city of runways, hangars, beige office buildings, and 1,000 duplexes and townhouses, but early efforts stalled. The Air Force, bound by regulations, couldn't immediately relinquish the property deeds to the newly formed Blytheville-Gosnell Regional Airport Authority, and "you can't redevelop something you don't control," says authority director Joe Gurley.
The base was rechristened the Arkansas Aeroplex and scored a few successes: The U.S. Postal Service, for instance, signed on to use the facility as a holiday distribution site, bringing in 600 seasonal jobs. But it did little to cushion the impact, especially on Gosnell (population 3,968), which lost more than half of its 2,300 K-12 students and had to lay off 60 teachers. The base "was the heart of the community," says school superintendent Stan Williams.
Even when the Air Force turned over the deeds in 1998, finding tenants was far from easy. "Military bases were not designed to be industrial parks," says Clif Chitwood of the county's Great River Economic Development Foundation.
Haltingly, the aeroplex attracted some businesses, the largest a jet repair firm that arrived in 2003. That firm, and about 40 smaller businesses, have made up for about 66 percent of the lost civilian jobs. Nothing has begun to fill the hole left by the departed military personnel.
Retooling. But Blytheville has caught some breaks and created a few of its own. In the late 1980s, the state of Arkansas helped bring in Nucor-Yamato, a scrap steel operation. Just as Eaker closed, a second mill opened. By 1998, Blytheville had sold the 800-plus duplexes at the aeroplex for $1 to a nonprofit group that turned them into a retirement community; about 250 of the duplexes are now occupied. In 2000, Blytheville residents voted for a temporary quarter-penny sales tax increase, which paid for a golf course alongside a new baseball complex on empty Eaker land. Those facilities are now hosting a variety of local and national tournaments.
Still, the unemployment rate in Mississippi County remains high at over 9 percent. In 2003, residents, this time at the county level, voted in a 10-year, half-cent sales tax for economic development. The tax brings in more than $2 million a year to provide industry with cheap or free land and improved roads; some of the cash is also being used to hunt for an anchor for the aeroplex. Clearly, Blytheville is out there pitching. But "if the [Air Force] called . . . and asked if they could come back," says Mayor Barrett Harrison, "there's not a person in this town who'd say no."
This story appears in the May 23, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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