Fort Monmouth panel asks for extension FMERPA seeks nine more months to draw up plan BY LIZ SHEEHAN Correspondent FREEHOLD - The authority formed to draw up a redevelopment plan for Fort Monmouth, which is scheduled to close in 2011, will ask for an extension of its December deadline through September 2008. At a meeting of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority (FMERPA) held last week at the Monmouth County Agricultural Building, Executive Director Frank Cosentino recommended to the panel that it should request a 270-day extension of the Dec. 8 date for the completion of its task to Sept. 8, 2008. He requested permission from the members to draft a letter, for their approval at the next meeting, to the federal Office of Economic Adjustment asking for the extension. In a voice vote, members approved the request. Prior to the vote, authority member Mayor Gerald Tarantolo of Eatontown said that 270 days would be the minimum extension needed. "We're really tight," he said, referring to the time for the work still needed to be done on the plan. "I was going to suggest a full year," said Monmouth County Freeholder Lillian Burry, who chaired the meeting. FMERPA was created by the state after Fort Monmouth was named as one of the bases to be closed by the Department of Defense through the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. Under the BRAC plan, scientists, engineers and others working on technology at the fort were slated to move to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. On its Web site, FMERPA describes its task as working with the "Army, government officials and other interested parties" in both developing "a new vision for this valuable property" and to "develop a specific plan of action to achieve this vision." The authority meets once a month in an open public meeting with the times and locations posted on its Web site. The members include the mayors of Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport, the state secretary of commerce, a member of the Board of Freeholders, four members appointed by the governor and a nonvoting representative of Fort Monmouth. The decision to close the 90-year-old fort has met with continuing opposition, which has strengthened as newspaper reports have said that BRAC's 2005 estimated cost of closing Fort Monmouth has been doubled, and now stands at $1.5 billion. In June, after Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. D-6) and Rush Holt (D-12) and Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, both Democrats, called for an investigation of the BRAC process when the escalating costs for closing the fort were revealed, the Government Accountability Office said it would investigate the matter. On Aug. 3, Sen. Susan Collins (RMaine) sent a letter to Sen. Carl Levin D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and John McCain (RAriz.), the committee's ranking member, asking that the committee, of which Collins is a member, review the BRAC process. In the letter, Collins cited the "escalating costs associated" with the closure of Naval Air Station Brunswick in Maine, and requested the senators "consider convening a Senate Armed Services Committee oversight hearing to thoroughly review the Department of Defense's cost analyses related to the base realignment and closure process. Given the national security implications, the impact on service members and their families, and the consequences for local communities and economies. Decisions to close and realign our nation's military installations should be made only with the most accurate information available." Kevin Kelley, Collins' press secretary, said Tuesday that the letter was sent on the closing day of Congress, and no reply had been received yet.