Camden

Chairs of County Commissions Ask Navy to Remove OLF Site from

<b>Letter to Secretary of the Navy cites “irrevocable damage” to North
<p>Carolina communities</b>

Chairs of the county boards of commissioners for Camden, Currituck and Pasquotank recently delivered a
letter to Secretary of the Navy Raymond Mabus. The commissioners
formally asked that Hale’s Lake, Camden County be removed from the list
of possible choices for the Outlying Landing Field.
<p>
Phil Faison, Owen Etheridge and Marshall Stevenson Jr., chairs of
Camden, Currituck and Pasquotank board of commissioners, respectively,
point to the grave consequences the Navy’s installation would bring to
their communities. Chief among their concerns is the detrimental impact
an OLF would have on the area’s tremendous population boom. The county’s
growth patterns are also incompatible with Navy guidelines when
selecting a community for an OLF.
<p>
 ”Navy officials have repeatedly said they will not build an OLF in a
community that does not want it,” commented Phil Faison, chair of the
Camden County Board of Commissioners. “Our letter to Sec. Mabus makes it
clear. No one wants an OLF at Hale’s Lake and that there is nothing the
Navy could do to change our position on the matter.”
<p>
<i>Aout the OLF</i><p>
<i>The proposed OLF in Camden County would serve the Master Jet Base at
Oceana Naval Air Station located approximately 30 miles over the state
line in Virginia Beach, VA. As proposed, the OLF could condemn thousands
of acres and place agricultural restrictions on thousands more, removing
the land from the county tax base. In early 2008, the Camden and
Currituck county boards publicly announced their opposition to the
proposed airfield.</i>

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