NAVAL PROJECTS: Murray, Dicks seek more funds for construction
Lloyd Pritchett — Jun 12th, 1998
Murray prods Senate for funds to build Bangor school
A somewhat unusual proposal to use defense dollars to design and build a new Central Kitsap elementary school near Bangor is moving forward after years of planning.
Local officials are watching closely to see how the idea is received in Congress. So far, at least, there's no problem.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., this week added $1 million to pay for the school's design to the Senate version of the 1999 military construction spending bill.
Her amendment was OK'd by both the Military Construction Subcommittee and the full Senate Appropriations Committee.
But more hurdles lie ahead.
First the provision must clear the full Senate. Then a House-Senate conference committee must be convinced to accept the idea, since the school design money isn't included in the House version of the military construction spending bill. Finally, the project must pass muster with the president, who has authority to kill funding for individual military construction projects by using the line-item veto.
Last year, Clinton killed 38 military construction projects that didn't receive prior approval from the Pentagon. And the CK elementary school project falls into that category.
Another problem is that military construction money is intended primarily to build facilities with national defense functions on military bases, and is only rarely used for constructing schools at military installations.
But observers noted that a few schools in Tennessee and Texas have been built using military dollars.
Murray said using Navy construction money for building a public school by the Naval Submarine Base at Bangor is appropriate.
"This is a step in the right direction toward getting the Navy to acknowledge that it has a role in addressing the lack of proper facilities near Sub Base Bangor," Murray said.
If the design money is approved this year, the senator plans to request construction funding next year, said Murray spokesman Tom Scott. That is expected to be about $15 million.
Central Kitsap School District administrators have their fingers crossed.
"The Navy has put 520 additional family housing units at Bangor in the last two years," said Gary Powell, assistant superintendent for finance and operations. "We do desperately need a new elementary school."
He said the district already is using more than 100 portable classrooms, and the problem will become even more acute when the Bangor base opens an additional 180 family housing units that are being renovated.
Powell said the district wants to build the new school on land just north of Cougar Valley Elementary School. The land, now owned by the Navy, would be turned over to the district under plans worked out over the past three years.
The district's target date for completing the school is September 2000. But even if the funding is approved by Congress, Powell conceded "that might not be practical."
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