Gov. Mike Leavitt came away from his first in-depth tour of Hill Air Force Base Monday with an even stronger conviction of the importance of Utah's largest employer.
"We do not have a higher economic development priority," Leavitt said at the conclusion of his three-hour tour.He visited four main locations on base - the computer mega-center, the landing-gear overhaul facility, the main maintenance hangars and the paint-stripping facility.
To sum up his tour, the governor said most Utahns would be surprised at the base's large size, its many employees, its high technology and the skill of its workers.
After the tour, the media barraged Leavitt with questions about his strategy and beliefs concerning the threatened closure of Hill in 1995 as part of military downsizing through the Department of Defense and Base Realignment and Closure Committee.
Leavitt said the cost to close Hill would be $1.7 billion - which would take 100 years to amortize.
"It would be a tragedy," Leavitt said. "That simply can't be allowed to happen."
The governor said his visit to Hill was in preparation to save the base. He said he doesn't believe Hill will suffer if base-closure competition is fair, is based on efficiency and avoids politics. He doesn't expect much political interference from elected officials, only interservice politics.
"We're right, this is not a matter of parochial protection. . . . Every competition Hill has entered into they have won," Leavitt said. "Business ought to go to the most efficient, and that's where Hill is . . . Hill will not only survive but prosper."
He stressed his commitment to keeping Hill from closure with $10 million to buy easements south of the base to prevent encroachment and $250,000 in state funds for other save-the-base efforts.
"The governor has given us the strongest support possible," Maj. Gen. Lester L. Lyles, Ogden Air Logistics Center Commander, responded.
Lyles said Hill plans to focus on the positive and maintain the quality work on base.
"All we want is an opportunity to be compared equally," Lyles said.
He said Hill can also beat any comparable Navy or Army facility in terms of efficiency.
The governor spent 30 minutes walking through the landing-gear overhaul facility - the Air Force's only such facility in the world. He also watched a demonstration of the paint-stripping facility, which is currently processing the first Navy F/A-18 Hornet Fighter, under a major interservice repair contract that Hill won based on cost and efficiency.