Community base

Every time the future of Fairchild Air Force Base has been at least potentially on the line, community leaders have been admonished about the importance of demonstrating a strong town-and-base relationship.

So far, it’s worked. Through several rounds of the Base Relocation and Closure process, or BRAC, Fairchild is still here, and the changes in its mission have been relatively limited.

As one example of community support for base concerns, efforts to tailor Spokane County’s land-use policies to the base’s need for buffer space may have stumbled once or twice but are in the process of correction.

Last week, Spokane County commissioners took a different kind of step to emphasize their appreciation of the community’s aeronautical heritage, of which Fairchild is such a commanding part. They pledged $50,000 toward the planned Armed Forces and Aerospace Museum, which, if the dream comes true, will be situated just off Interstate 90 near the air base.

The immediate purpose of the county appropriation is to persuade the Washington Legislature to match it with $5 million. Lawmakers rebuffed a similar request last winter, but they should give it serious reconsideration when they convene in January.

This would be more than a Christmas giveaway. According to some estimates, the museum, which has been under consideration for the past decade, would attract as many as 80,000 visitors a year and generate $26 million in economic impact in the region.

It would feature a world-class collection of antique aircraft and be a resource to area schools whose access to field trips featuring military aircraft has been curtailed by post-9/11 security concerns.

Prior to 1996, Fairchild was home to a Heritage Museum that housed some 7,000 artifacts, many of them donated by local givers. Cost-conscious Air Force officials decided, however, to shut down that and similar facilities around the country, and their contents were destined for warehousing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

It took a former commander of the 92nd Bombardment Wing at Fairchild, retired Col. Arne Weinman, to launch a petition to keep those items here. His determination led to a move for the local museum that is now largely dependent on state lawmakers’ recognition of its worthiness.

Indeed, local backers have raised a couple of million bucks already and are hoping to get started on the facility in 2009.

But even at home there is wariness, as both county officials and Spokane International Airport Business Park leaders – prospective landlords for the final museum – have demonstrated some skepticism over museum backers’ ability to get the job done.

Not to mention the competition from a variety of other deserving Spokane projects with their own promise of economic stimulation.

The commissioners’ financial offer on the museum’s behalf won’t assure its success, but it’s an important gesture.