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By Jeff Sheler
SUFFOLK
Declaring that the economic future of the city is at stake, the City Council called on President Barack Obama on Wednesday night to stop the Pentagon from shuttering the Joint Forces Command and vowed to fight the move "on every front."
"We have our work cut out for us," Mayor Linda Johnson said moments before the council unanimously approved a resolution outlining the economic damage the command's closure would bring to the city and calling on the president to "reject the recommendation" of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
The action came after council members were briefed on the devastation the closure would bring to the city's technology-driven economy, which has grown up around JFCOM's modeling and simulation center in northern Suffolk since the early 1990s.
The city is home to nearly 70 percent of the command's facilities in Hampton Roads and employs some 2,200 people in 800,000 square feet of leased space.
Economic Development Director Kevin Hughes told the council those jobs would be lost if the command is shut down, along with 7,000 more in related businesses - defense contractors and university researchers who provide support for JFCOM - and hotels, restaurants and other businesses that count on the command for up to 80 percent of their profits.
Meanwhile, the city would stand to lose from $2.5 million to $4 million a year in tax revenues.
Jeff Sheler, (757) 222-5563, jeffrey.sheler@pilotonline.com
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JFCOM, Suffolk, Obama
November is coming. You all know what to do. Get out there and change this House of Representatives first, and then be sure to vote in 2012. I hear Mickey Mouse is seriously considering a run. Wait: Big ears! Maybe we need to re-think this. He may already be in office.
big ears?
You talking about bush?
Obama Doesn't Care About Suffolk or Any American Job
Obama doesn't care about JFCOM. He only cares about whether the Mosque gets built.
JFCOM
What did Bush care about? Oh yeah, that's right, haliburton and big oil.
this thing is
gone. Time to move on folks, time to move on.
its not gone we have to make
its not gone we have to make sure that it stays open and everyone needs to write or call their Congress Rep and their Senate Rep plus the businesses need to stop making the prices higher for the government and those business know who you are it happens in all military towns the prices go up for everyone not just the military that is why the business that I run with my wife does not do that we don't raise the prices just because it is the government needing our services we charge them the same as anyone else and more people need to follow lower your prices for your services and see if you can get more business from the locals and the government. George Bush put us in this mess and everyone seems to forget that it was him that started the war in Iraq due to weapons of mass destruction where were they never found but all of the service members that have lost their lives and thei families cannot never regain their lives. It is not fair to blame the Obama administration for this mess that was started by Bush and his squad of goons.
Get National Attention
Good luck with getting President Obama's attention on this one. There are literally hundreds of communities across this country that are struggling to stay afloat economically. Why should Suffolk be treated any different?
In any case, Suffolk really needs to attract the national media to this story. Make a big deal about JFCOM closing and its impact on their economy at that level and Obama may be pushed to do something.
it's OBAMA REVENGE
WE didnt vote for himmm.his highness.get it?this is his idea.Anybody notice gates is quitting?