WILLOW GROVE, PA-The state's Department of Military and Veterans Affairs has selected L. Robert Kimball & Associates to prepare an implementation plan for the joint interagency facility on the 1,100-acre former Naval Air Station Joint Reserve base here. The architectural and engineering firm is due to complete its plan in February 2008.

The selection represents the first step in turning the military base, which was doomed by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, into a security hub that will house military units and civilian emergency response and preparedness agencies. As GlobeSt.com previously reported, efforts to maintain the facility culminated, after a two-year battle, with federal legislation.

The legislation, hammered out in a proposal by Gov. Ed Rendell, requires the Navy to initially transfer the land and facilities to the Air Force, which has agreed to lease it to the state. The state will oversee operations. The operating costs are estimated at between $12 million and $18 million a year, and the costs will be shared among government and non-government entities, which the governor is enlisting to lease or license facilities at the base.