7 armories to close, with governor’s OK; Walnut Ridge’s safe

The Arkansas National Guard announced Tuesday that it would shut down seven armories across the state — one fewer than what was proposed to the governor last week.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed off Monday on closing armories, formally known as readiness centers, in Berryville, Blytheville, Brinkley, Crossett, Helena- West Helena, Rector and Wynne. The action decreases the number of armories in the state from 62 to 55.

In discussions with the governor, the Arkansas National Guard decided to spare the Walnut Ridge armory, the largest of the facilities that had been up for closure.

“We knew there was a lot of push- back,” said Lt. Col. Joel Lynch, spokesman for the state National Guard. “There were some good reasons why that community felt like the readiness center needed to stay open. After considering all of that, we saw this as being a good compromise.”

The 243 soldiers assigned to the seven armories, either for monthly drills or as fulltime staff members, were reassigned.

Guardsmen will soon begin emptying the armories, which will be returned to the cities, except for the one in Brinkley. Because the property in Brinkley was donated by an individual, it will be offered for sale to the heirs of the original owners.

Lynch said the affected soldiers would begin drills at their new locations by the end of the summer.

The closing plan was first presented to former Gov. Mike Beebe last fall. At that time, the National Guard Bureau decreased the Arkansas National Guard’s mainte-

nance budget for the 62 armories by $ 2.2 million, said Col. Gregory Bacon, chief of staff for the state’s Army National Guard.

The state Guard spent approximately $ 10.2 million last fiscal year, Bacon said, and it was given $ 8 million for 2015.

The decrease was the result of cutbacks brought on by the Budget Control Act of 2011, which calls for a $ 487 billion reduction in defense spending over the next 10 years.

“This is really the first year that we had a truly constrained budget in the National Guard,” Bacon said. “With that, we were forced into making some very hard choices. That’s what really fed our decision to go where we are now.”

Returning the seven armories to the cities is expected to save the Arkansas National Guard approximately $ 268,500 annually — the amount spent in utilities and maintenance on the seven armories last fiscal year.

“While I’m sensitive to the affect this may have on some communities, this is a well-thought-out plan that won’t impact Arkansas’s readiness,” Hutchinson said in a written statement Tuesday. “It’s also a fiscally responsible plan for the taxpayers.”

In April, Hutchinson asked Arkansas National Guard leaders to arrange meetings with community members in each of the affected cities.

Ken Griffin, the governor’s military and veterans liaison, attended the meetings. He said last week that reactions were split — most didn’t want to lose the National Guard presence in their communities, but some liked the idea of using the property for other purposes.

An estimated 20 people showed up in Walnut Ridge to fight the decision to close that armory, said Walnut Ridge Mayor Charles Snapp.

In the original plan, the 77 soldiers assigned to that location — along with 31 soldiers assigned to the Rector armory — were to be reassigned to Newport, where an armory is maintained by the Arkansas National Guard but doesn’t have a unit assigned to it.

Had Walnut Ridge had been included in the closures, the savings to the state National Guard would have been closer to $ 306,000 annually.

But Snapp said closing the armory would be “another lick” to the local economy.

“I can promise you, you have one happy mayor right here,” Snapp said after hearing of the revised plan Tuesday. “I hate it for the others, and I was prepared to deal with that emotion. But I felt like we had a chance all along. I was just hanging on.”

Now, the soldiers assigned to the Rector armory will be reassigned to the Walnut Ridge facility, and the armory in Newport will remain empty.

The closure plan also calls for the 10 soldiers in Berryville to be reassigned to Bentonville; the 43 soldiers in Crossett to be reassigned to El Dorado; the 38 soldiers in Brinkley to be reassigned to Forrest City; the 51 soldiers in Wynne to be reassigned to Cabot; and the 16 soldiers in Helena- West Helena to be reassigned to Pine Bluff.

The 54 soldiers in Blytheville also will be reassigned.

In Berryville, there are preliminary plans to turn the property into a continuing education center, said Mayor Tim McKinney. Crossett Mayor Scott McCormick II said the local Police Department may make the armory there its new home.

Lynch said Blytheville officials were also considering using the armory’s 5- acre property for its Police Department.

“These buildings do still have life,” Lynch said. “It does have some benefit to the community.”

“It’s not like we’re trying to be stone cold and get rid of these old buildings. It hurts us, too. But it’s the way forward.”

The seven armories were selected on the basis of their age and condition — most were built in the 1950s and ’ 60s — and on how many people the Guard is able to recruit in those areas. The cities’ population trends and the size of the forces currently assigned to the locations were also considered.

Engineers, budget analysts and architects visited the state’s 62 armories in 2012 as part of a national study of the National Guard’s efficiency, Bacon said. As a result, the

National Guard Bureau recommended Arkansas shut down 16 armories, bringing the total from 62 to 46.

Arkansas National Guard leaders thought such a cut would be too drastic, Bacon said.

“We looked at that and said, ‘ That’s pretty heavy- handed,’” Bacon said. “We made these returns for 2015 based on our current situation. We don’t want to overreact, and we don’t want to under- react.”

Bacon said there currently are no plans to shut down more armories. Any further decisions will come after the National Guard learns its budget for fiscal 2016, which won’t be known until Congress passes the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act.

“We’re going to be very cautions and careful as we move forward through this year,” Bacon said. “It would be presumptuous and perhaps ahead of the game to make plans now. We really don’t know.”