GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Mayors Announce 'Plan B' After BRAC Votes to Close Fort

EATONTOWN, NJ-Plan A was the continued operation of Fort Monmouth, but after the BRAC commission voted yesterday to shutter the 88-year-old Army base, three local mayors held a press conference to announce that they had already launched Plan B. The 1,100-acre base is currently home to the Army’s electronics, electronics research and related commands which, under the Pentagon’s plan, would be moved the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Fort Monmouth was on the Pentagon’s list for closure on three earlier occasions, but had survived the cuts, until now.

While asserting that, “our arguments to keep the fort open fell on deaf ears,” Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo insisted “there is life after Fort Monmouth closes.” The main entrance to the fort is located here, although it sprawls over the neighboring communities of Oceanport and Tinton Falls and borders on the communities of Little Silver and Shewsbury.

“We hope that by taking the initiative to address the closure and redevelopment of Fort Monmouth expeditiously, we will lessen the adverse effects of the fort’s closing and start a new economic renaissance for our communities,” Tarantolo said, speaking for and flanked by Oceanport Mayor Maria Gatta and Tinton Falls Mayor Peter Maclearie last night.