Commentary—

Don’t Cry For Me, Submarina

By William A. Collins

How to keep,

My life serene;

If I lose,

My submarine.

Industries come and industries go, as do the towns that depend on them. The Western desert is dotted with ghost towns from the Gold Rush. Other communities died when a highway or railroad bypassed them, or a new federal policy drove their small farmers away.

Here at home Willimantic suffered when the thread industry bolted. Shelton took it in the chops when the foam rubber factory burned. Bridgeport and Waterbury are just shells of their former industrial selves. I was in high school when the hat factories closed in Norwalk and Danbury. It was like the Great Depression. Hartford is still reeling from the exodus of insurance companies, and Stratford from the loss of tank engines.

Which brings us to Groton. As with tank engines, the Pentagon doesn’t need so many submarines any more, nor all those ports to harbor them. We’ve already cut way back on production. But subs are different from hats. It’s not the industry that decides to call it quits — it’s the government. That, in turn, spurs but one result, politics.

Thus senators and congressmen nationwide are all aflurry, pounding on the Pentagon’s door to save their local post. No pols can afford the suspicion that he didn’t fight hard enough to protect jobs. In our state, Rep. Rob Simmons, an old military guy, is already in the public crosshairs for letting this happen. Worse, the closure is being carried out by his own Republican Party. Now his opponent in the next election, Joe Courtney, has cunningly buried the hatchet in order to “work together.”

Nice try. But here in Norwalk we couldn’t persuade men to start wearing hats again, nor will Groton conjure up a need for more subs. It’s a zero-sum game now, and the big losers are the blue states. No amount of posturing by the governor, senators, congressmen, or business leaders is going to alter that.

But posture they must. Losing a base the size of Groton is a big deal. It’s not just the civilian employees and contractors who suffer; it’s all the regional businesses dependent on that economic engine. In addition there is a fleet of military retirees out there who use its facilities for health care, cheap shopping, and all manner of personal support.

And so with that much at stake, you would hope that the state might crank up a task force to explore alternative uses. Nope, no one wants to be the first to look defeatist. Indeed many communities nationwide have lost years of valuable planning time by not facing reality quickly enough. Groton seems destined to be the next.

President Bush, of course, has recommended using closed bases to build much-needed oil refineries. Mmm…maybe not. Then there is the horrendous anticipated cost of clean up. The Navy never wants to pay for its own mess, and may suggest that the whole place be fenced off as a “sacrifice zone.” Birds love them.

But we can improve on that. Many closed bases are now doing better economically than they were before. These are ones where towns and states planned and researched together ahead of time. With all that waterfront and all that highway accessibility, we are not talking rocket science here. The trouble is in getting citizens and pols to face reality. One day, even if (miraculously) not now, the base will close. Groton/New London would be well advised to start planning for it fast. Electric Boat is.

(Columnist William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk.)