BRAC jobs likely to need locals

Just 15% have moved; 20 to 25% expected

Of the 1,050 jobs that have transferred to Redstone Arsenal so far as part of BRAC, about 15 percent represent people who have moved with their jobs, says the chairman of the local BRAC committee.

That's why this area has not seen a major influx of outsiders yet, said Joe Ritch, a Huntsville lawyer who chairs the Tennessee Valley BRAC Committee. But he said that percentage will increase.

"That will have to happen at some point," Ritch said Tuesday at the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce's Economic Development Summit, held at the Huntsville Marriott.

"BRAC will get its people."

The Pentagon is moving the headquarters of the Army Materiel Command, Army Security & Assistance Command and Army Space & Missile Defense Command, as well as the majority of the MDA and helicopter work, to Redstone by 2011. In all, nearly 4,700 military jobs - the vast majority from the Washington, D.C., area - are scheduled to relocate here.

"BRAC will be successful, but companies in Huntsville will be hit hard," Ritch said. "We'll be about 6,000 to 7,000 people short" for military and contractor jobs, meaning that many of those jobs may be filled by defense and aerospace workers already employed here.

A month ago Ritch led a local delegation to make pitches at MDA offices in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington.

Among the challenges in persuading people to relocate, Ritch said, are the misconceptions about the quality of health care and schools, and concerns about finding jobs for spouses and leaving behind families in the D.C. area. Also, he noted, it's a challenge to attract workers who have plenty of job opportunities in the D.C. area.

Army Maj. Gen. Jim Myles, head of the Aviation and Missile Command on Redstone, and the MDA's Maj. Gen. Chris Anzalone of the Air Force, have estimated that 20 to 25 percent, or about 1,000, of the 4,700 people now holding the relocating jobs will actually move.

According to a BRAC timeline, the largest number of jobs to move - about 1,900 - is scheduled for 2010.

"Those have to be timed with the availability of facilities," said Todd Hutto, chief of the Plans, Analysis and Integration Office at Redstone.

In all, he said, Redstone is scheduled to get about $400 million in BRAC-related construction.

Work-force efforts

Also at Tuesday's summit, Jim Bolte, senior vice president at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Huntsville, praised the chamber's work-force initiatives. He mentioned the "three pillars": recruitment and retainment, career awareness, and skills development.

Specifically, Bolte, vice chairman for work force on the chamber's Executive Committee this year, touted the launch of asmartplace.com. More than 300 companies in the area have posted about 500 jobs so far.

"We're trying to funnel everyone through this portal," he said.

Bolte also noted the chamber's hiring of Mark Brown and Mitzi Floyd to oversee work-force recruitment. He said Brown has been traveling nonstop, visiting college campuses and so-called sister cities, to try to attract young professionals here.

The chamber has also staged successful "Huntsville on the Road" events in Tuscaloosa and Atlanta, with Austin, Texas, and San Diego up next.

As for career awareness, Bolte touted the chamber's partnership with Junior Achievement to identify and encourage students to explore careers that will be in demand locally in coming years. The chamber is hosting a career expo in October for 10th-graders dubbed "Show Me the Money!" and is supporting the National Association of Manufacturers' "Dream It! Do It!" campaign targeting students.

In skills development, Bolte talked about the chamber's work with eight engineering academies in North Alabama and its efforts to spur a "dramatic increase" in AP courses in area schools.