NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Supporters of the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station say it is a major regional employer with over 3,000 reservists, guard members, civilian staffers, and contractors. So it is a pillar of the Niagara County economy with an average $300 million annual economic impact.
Now Amazon's planned major distribution center could sit right next door in the Town of Niagara. 2 On Your Side talked to base officials about the potential impact of this new corporate neighbor.
As a $10.6 million project starts to upgrade the airbase main gate and security it's more progress for the installation with a new commander at the helm.
"Continue to renovate some of our buildings, to modernize some of our buildings, and then to build new facilities. Niagara Air Reserve Station is a great base and we don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon," Colonel Lara Morrison says.
And despite a 2005 base closure scare, there is more confidence in base missions. They are the more secretive 107th Air National Guard attack wing remotely flying the MQ 9 Reaper drone and the much more visible 914th Air Force reserve wing and its KC- 135 aerial refueling tankers.
Morrison notes, "The KC-135 is absolutely essential to our nation and it will remain here as far as I have been told for the foreseeable future."
And so now the base may eventually get a new Lockport road neighbor. Amazon plans a massive five-story 3.8 million square foot distribution center on adjacent property.
"We've had nothing but a good rapport with Amazon," Morrison says.
As a party to the town's SEQR process, base officials did raise questions about traffic flow for reservists on local two-lane roads against incoming tractor trailers.
"That also has been addressed appropriately so I don't have any concerns."
It turns out Colonel Morrison's previous air base posting in suburban Los Angeles has a similar setting.
"March Air Reserve Base has a very large Amazon distribution facility among other large distribution facilities right outside of its base. And then that airfield also handles some Amazon commercial traffic."
So we asked Morrison who is a veteran KC-135 pilot about the proximity of the proposed Amazon warehouse to the base and its runways. 2 On Your Side said "They're talking a five-story facility there. Do you think as a pilot that presents any challenges to being able to get the KC-135s to land safely and take off?"
Morrison responded, "Again my engineers can answer this question much better and much more eloquently than I can but we have addressed that, and no there won't be a problem."
As for the main gate renovation project, it will be closed off to the traffic from Lockport Road. That October 17 main gate closure will affect over 1,700 reservists and civilian staffers for two years. The detours will be the use of the Tuscarora Road gate on the western side of the base for the primary entrance and the Walmore Road Gate on the eastern side for the primary exit.
The estimated cost of over ten million dollars just to build a new entrance gate to the base may seem like a lot of money. But it is important when it comes to security because military bases themselves have become targets.
In past years there's been fatal violence at military bases like Fort Hood in Texas and Pensacola in Florida and other such cases.
Lt. Colonel William Gourlay who commands the base security forces says "There is definitely an increase in that throughout the United States and many of our military bases - we've been lucky here."
"We're gonna improve a lot of our security features including the barriers and anything that would prevent an attack on the base and just increase the overall security of the base and everyone on it."
That kind of Investment also keeps the base open period after the 2005 Pentagon attempt to close it. It was technically realigned with a new mission in the switch from the C-130 cargo planes to the KC-135 tankers back then.
John Cooper of the Niagara Military Affairs Council says, "At this point, I think we feel very secure but we also know that we need to remain vigilant and continue to work on behalf of our base."
So now there is a push for various projects including a new operations center, underground fuel lines, and new storage tanks, and more training facilities for the base. Cooper says they are also seeking $55 Million in Air Force funding for an extension of the current runways to 11,000 feet.
The KC - 135 tankers using the existing 9,800-foot-long runways can only take off with a partial load of fuel for their refueling missions. A longer runway would make the base even more valuable to the Pentagon for the planes to carry that full capacity fuel load.