650-plus turn out to fight proposed OLF in Virginia

COURTLAND

Days after a band of committed farmers celebrated their defeat of Navy plans for a jet landing field in North Carolina, a group of Virginia residents turned out en masse to start a similar battle.

More than 650 people packed Southampton High School's auditorium Wednesday night to hear advice from Barry Steinberg, an attorney from Kutak Rock, a Washington-based firm.

Steinberg, a retired Army colonel, wasted little time in telling members of the audience what they wanted to hear.

"It's oversimplistic to say that we are in a fight with the Navy. We want to help the Navy solve its problems. But the solution to the Navy's problems is not in Sussex,

Surry and Southampton counties," he said to applause.

In January, four years after Washington County, N.C., filed a federal lawsuit against the Navy's plans for a landing field there, Navy Secretary Donald Winter took the North Carolina site off the table.

He designated five other sites - two in North Carolina, three in Virginia - for further study. Those sites were among more than a dozen recommended last year by the governors of the two states.

Winter's decision jump-started the nascent opposition to the Virginia sites.

Wednesday's meeting demonstrated how organized Virginians Against the Outlying Landing Field is. In the high school cafeteria, volunteers staffed tables to collect donations, sell red and white "No OLF" yard signs and hawk raffle tickets to raise money for the effort.

The group also distributed pages of contact information for elected officials to target with letters of protest.

Steinberg outlined the process that will unfold over the next three years: scoping meetings, a draft environmental impact statement, and then the record of decision on which site best provides for training squadrons of fighter jets from Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.

Residents like Jim Hunnicutt said they resent the possibility of their homes' being affected because development in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake has rendered current facilities less than optimal for training pilots.

Hunnicutt bought a $5 sign to display on his 10-acre property in Sedley, about three miles from one of the proposed sites.

"We're getting dumped on," he said. "If we were getting the whole base - with the tax base and population and jobs - it would be one thing. There's no incentive. I don't particularly want it anywhere in

the area."

Steinberg told the crowd that not wanting the landing field isn't a strategy for fighting it.

"We've got to give them ammunition," he said, referring to congressional representatives with some power over military funding.

He advised residents to raise questions about every aspect of the project: How will county finances be affected from losing thousands of acres of taxable property? What would clear-cutting timber for the field do to the population of red-cockaded woodpeckers? How would paving an 8,000-foot runway affect flooding and drainage?

"Running to court is not the answer," Steinberg said. Instead, the community must build an administrative record so it has a case if it does sue later, after the Navy makes its decision, he said.

Steinberg also said the Navy's biggest issue isn't finding a landing field for Oceana's jets - it's pondering Oceana's future when the Joint Strike Fighter, or F-35, replaces the F/A-18 Super Hornet.

"The Navy ought to be looking at the bigger issue," Steinberg said. "Oceana has a problem that needs to be fixed."

The attorney finished his hourlong presentation with an abbreviated civics lesson.

"In a democracy, the will of the people counts," read his final slide. He urged the audience to reach out to state and federal elected officials.

"We don't live in the Soviet Union. We don't live in Red China," he said.

Responding to a question about the likelihood of winning against the Navy, Steinberg cited the Washington County group - a grass-roots effort that fought the field on environmental grounds, in court, and by attracting support from politicians.

"The Navy basically gave up," Steinberg said. "David, 1. Goliath, 0."

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com