Chet Edwards For Congress

B-CS Eagle: Reserve unit may get new home

By MATTHEW WATKINS
Bryan-College Station Eagle

Thursday, June 25, 2009

The home of the 420th Engineer Brigade of the U.S. Army Reserve is falling apart.

Built in 1958, the building on Carson Street in Bryan has foundation problems, cracked floors and damaged walls and ceilings. It also violates modern federal "force protection" requirements because it is too close to the street.

"The current Moore Memorial Center was constructed nearly half a century ago, to support a very different force than we have today," said Col. James Doty, commander of the 420th Engineer Brigade. "It is, quite frankly, beyond its useful life and wholly inadequate to serve as an Army Reserve headquarters."

A piece of legislation may provide the unit with a new headquarters that works, he said.

U.S Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, announced Wednesday that he had included $12.2 million in the 2010 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill to pay for a new headquarters for the unit.

The bill passed through the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday and will soon be considered by the entire House.

In its current form, it includes $133.7 billion in spending.

Edwards is the chairman of the House Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee. He earmarked $920,000 last year to hire architects and planners to design the center.

The new center's location hasn't been determined, but it may be moved from the existing site so that it can be closer to the area's connecting highways, officials said. It will feature administrative, educational and physical fitness areas, a library, a vault, and a maintenance shop.

Doty said a completion date was impossible to estimate because the project won't be a "done deal" until the bill is passed by both chambers of Congress and signed into law. He said the new headquarters would ideally be ready 18 months after the bill is enacted.

He said that the facility had long been recognized by the federal government as a site that needed improvements but that having the funding in the 2010 appropriations bill would accelerate construction by more than two years.

The center provides training for nearly 5,000 soldiers from across the country serving in the 420th Brigade. The group most recently served a tour in Afghanistan, returning this year.

"Twenty-first century soldiers shouldn't have to train in Cold War-era facilities," Edwards said. "Ensuring our service men and women have the best facilities in which to train and live is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do."