20 tankers to visit base

Grand Forks’ temporary loss will be Spokane’s gain this year.

When the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota closes its runway for about six months for resurfacing and remodeling, the base’s tankers will have to go somewhere. Twenty of them will come to Fairchild Air Force Base later this month, along with about 376 people needed to fly and maintain them.

The West Plains base and the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce have been preparing for the influx of military personnel for more than a month. The visiting troops will fly their missions out of Fairchild and use the headquarters office of the 96th Air Refueling Squadron, which was recently inactivated and combined with another Fairchild squadron.

The influx of nearly 400 people presents some logistical challenges for the base, said Rich Hadley, of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, which is planning a formal welcoming of the Grand Forks troops.

Fairchild doesn’t have temporary housing for that many people, so the base has booked long-term room contracts in hotels and motels around the community. The six months during which they will be at Fairchild includes some of Spokane’s busiest tourist events – Bloomsday, the Lilac Festival and Hoopfest – so hotel rooms will be particularly tight this year for events.

The runway project is scheduled to be complete by Nov. 1. The visiting troops will be on temporary duty, which means they will leave their families in North Dakota.

“We’re working hard to make Spokane a welcoming community,” Hadley said.

The Spokane chamber is planning an April 22 reception for the Grand Forks personnel, which will include greetings from local elected officials and business leaders. Grand Forks’ mayor and chamber officials have been invited for the reception, he said.

The chamber will also have billboards and bus signs that welcome the Grand Forks troops to Spokane. An economist has estimated the extra Air Force personnel will add between $4 million and $7 million to the local economy, with the lodging contracts, meals, entertainment and transportation costs, Hadley said.

The Pentagon is spending $27.5 million on the Grand Forks base runway remodeling. The commander of the 319th Air Refueling Wing told the Associated Press this week the runway was originally built for much smaller fighter planes and needs to be upgraded to avoid failing Air Force standards at some future date.

Both the 319th and Fairchild’s 92nd Air Refueling Wing fly KC-135 tankers, which are the backbone of the Air Force’s refueling fleet.