Thursday, April 19, 2007

Towns solicit relocating workers

Dan Deason, mayor of Scottsboro, Ala., describes the amenities of his city to a Missile Defense Agency employee spouse. (Photo by Melina Rodriguez)

A variety of community representatives - from town mayors to school board advisors - from Huntsville, Ala., and the surrounding communities traveled to Arlington, Va. last week to meet with U.S. Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency employees whose jobs are relocating to Redstone Arsenal, Ala. as part of Base Realignment and Closure 2005.

The community representatives provided information to MDA employees that are currently working and living in Arlington and the surrounding areas, whose jobs will transfer to Redstone Arsenal, Ala. Fort Belvoir’s Army Materiel Command and several other government agencies will also transfer to Redstone Arsenal in response to BRAC.

“This was very beneficial,” said April Harrison, accountant career intern at MDA. “They give you a better insight and clarify any doubt, and it did open my mind to the possibility [of moving with the agency].”

Beginning on April 12, community representatives presented informational town hall meetings throughout the day followed by break-out sessions at the Arlington Sheraton and continued with this process into Saturday so that all employees would have a chance to attend the informational meetings.

“I moved to Huntsville, Ala., in October 2006 after living in Washington D.C. for 14 years,” said Harvey Player, assistant deputy for Agency Operations South at MDA, who was a featured guest speaker at the informational session. “We’re glad we made the decision to move, I wish I would have made it a lot sooner - there’s a less stressful environment and you can get to work without sitting in a parking lot.”

After informational briefings and several presentations from current MDA employees who have already moved to the Alabama and Tennessee areas surrounding Redstone Arsenal, employees attended briefings where community representatives provided an array of information on their own specific communities.

“We have rural setting and some of our public schools are some of the best in the state,” said Fayetteville, Tenn. Mayor Gwen Shelton, who mainly received questions about the schools in Fayetteville.

Fayetteville, like many of the small towns surrounding Redstone Arsenal, is within easy driving distance of the military base.

“Our purpose is to get the word out and brag about Arab, Ala. and [we want] to recruit those families,” said Arab, Ala. Mayor Lee Cox. “All of these are great places to raise a family and once [the employees] get there they’ll see that it was the right move.”

Each of the more than 13 communities represented at the community briefings provided pamphlets and trinkets to promote their own communities while also supporting other communities.

“This really demonstrated that the community is very welcoming to have MDA move there,” said Robert Leffler, security specialist at MDA, who has already decided to relocate to Redstone Arsenal.

During the four day recruiting trip the communities also sponsored a job fair for spouses of government employees and a carnival day for children of employees.

“We’ve got such beautiful places to live,” said Scottsboro, Ala. Mayor Dan Deason. “We’re anxious to share our home with other people.”

Approximately 2,248 MDA jobs will move to Redstone Arsenal from various locations in the northern Virginia and Washington D.C. areas. The MDA Headquarters Command Center will relocate to Fort Belvoir with approximately 250 government and civilian employees, according to Pat Craver, deputy director at the MDA Directorate of Human Resources South.