Military Expansion Must Be Marked By Give And Take Between Islanders And DOD

By Jeff Marchesseault

GUAM - Governor Camacho's meeting with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in Washington Thursday was an encouraging sign that the U.S. capital's seniormost leadership is finally hearing Guam's rightful insistence that the island deserves help rebuilding its roads and ports. And the fact that LaHood was so thoroughly familiar with Guam's infrastructural needs adds confidence that the territory is squarely on the Cabinet's radar.

LaHood's face-to-face discussion with our Governor showed that President Obama's inner circle has conversational rapport with the pertinent load-bearing issues facing Guam's roadways and ports of entry. And it demonstrates a top-level familiarity with a local sore point that these crucial underpinnings still remain underequipped to take on the tonnage and nonstop volume heading our way, beginning as early as next summer.

Washington is beginning to hear our local leaders' outspoken insistence that Guam's civilian community is in dire need of timely federal assistance. We need Washington's help bringing our transportation groundwork up to standard for the buildup and to handle the broader military operations and overall upsurge in civilian activity that will follow. At the core of the buildup will be a massively disruptive defense installations project designed to provide a critical component of America's regional military strategy. But it is a project that could leave us impacted in ways that fail to address the quality of life issues so important to Guam's core values and traditions of peace, harmony and family -- if we don't continue to tell the federal government at every turn what our expectations are before, during and after the buildup .

There can be no doubt that the Guam of 2014 will be a very different place than the Guam of 2009. It won't be perfect. There will be sacrifices. But that doesn't mean our local community will automatically get a raw deal, either. If the island's civilian community is going to continue living in relative harmony with a growing military community, then both groups will have to make compromises. A much-touted 'One Guam' approach that seeks to break down social barriers, even as it breaks new ground on expansion projects deemed critical to our nation's security, will require mutual trust and understanding from this critical juncture before the ground clearing starts -- straight through the buildup and beyond. Continuous dialogue interspersed with the timely meeting of mutually planned benchmarks will go a long way toward preventing resentment and social unrest. It will also help 'One Guam' rally to the higher causes of equality, loyalty, patriotism and freedom.

But unless our locally elected leaders keep the pressure on Washington with the full force and scrutiny of a discerning electorate in pursuit of mitigated impacts and enhanced living conditions before the buildup starts next year, then the quality of life we hold dear and aspire to will be diminished in direct proportion to our level of apathy. What's good for the Pentagon must also be good for Guam. After all, what are we defending but the freedom to live the life we choose on an island that's worth inhabiting -- on base or off?

Here is an official news release from the Office of the Governor of Guam announcing Governor Camacho's meeting with Secretary LaHood:

Governor Camacho Meets Secretary Of Transportation

Modernization Of Seaport And Expansion Of Guam Roadways With ARRA
Funds Are Focus Of Discussion With DOT

November 6, 2009 / Washington, D.C. - Governor Felix P. Camacho today met with the
secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Ray LaHood, to discuss the use of funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 for the island's seaport and airport expansions and local roadway infrastructure improvements.

"Without the expansion of our transportation systems, we cannot expect to grow commerce in the Western Pacific," said Gov. Camacho. "Secretary LaHood was well-informed of our infrastructure needs, especially related to ensuring a successful Guam Military Buildup Program."

The one-hour meeting touched on the use of federal dollars to modernize the Port Authority of Guam (PAG). Gov. Camacho asked for favorable consideration for approximately $50 million in discretionary funding from Secretary LaHood to begin the multi-phase expansion at
Guam's seaport and asked him to advocate for Guam with the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, for approval of a $50 million direct loan to the PAG.

The U.S. Maritime Administration, a DOT agency, has spent the past year assisting the PAG in using federal funds for planning and engineering projects at Apra Harbor to gain the designation as a strategic port by the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command. Gov. Camacho remarked that Secretary LaHood was well-versed on the issues surrounding the DOT funding for the PAG projects and the impacts the decision will have on other federal programs being leveraged to assist in this effort.

"Our seaport is our lifeline to the rest of the world, and Secretary LaHood recognized the impacts the DOT funding will have on serving Guam and Micronesia," said Gov. Camacho. "I stressed that his approval on DOT funding is critical to the Port's modernization and will ensure growth and expansion in an important industry."

Gov. Camacho said that Secretary LaHood praised the efforts of the Guam Department of Public Works (DPW) for its timely submission for applications related to DOT's portion of ARRA projects. DPW was the first in the United States to submit projects for consideration under the ARRA law. ARRA-related road construction, mass transit expansion, and airport upgrades are to begin in the first quarter of 2010.

"DPW has changed the perception of Guam by this accomplishment and has turned heads in the right direction with all the other executive branch agencies," said Gov. Camacho. "We will further define what DPW and other government of Guam agencies will bring to national decision makers and ensure as an administration that we protect the livelihoods of all our residents."

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