President Clinton has signed into law an appropriations bill that includes $38 million for new construction and design work at Spokane-area military facilities.


The bill, the Fiscal Year 2000 Military Construction Appropriations Act, includes $35.8 million for projects at Fairchild Air Force Base and $2.2 million for a Washington Army National Guard armory that could be part of a Combined Public Safety Training Center proposed for East Spokane.


The $35.8 million earmarked for Fairchild Air Force Base will go toward construction of four projects on the base:


A $12.4 million addition to the bases hydrant fuel system will replace aging tanks, pumps, and filtering equipment and provide more aircraft-fueling stations.


A $9.8 million support facility will include two buildings for the Washington Air National Guards support staff, civil engineering, security, and communications divisions.


A $9.1 million flightline support facility will house all flightline operations and materiel support for 60 KC-135/T tankers.


A $4.5 million survival training logistics complex will house survival equipment and supplies and provide administrative and vehicle-storage space.


Such large projects obviously will pump dollars into the local construction market, but the significance of that size of an investment goes beyond that, says Dan Kirschner, director of public affairs at the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce. He says such a large appropriation is a healthy investment in Fairchild when infrastructure spending is being cut for many other bases.


We think Congress and the Air Force are telling us this is one of the bases of the 21st century, Kirschner says.


The survival training logistics complex is expected to be the first project to get under way, says Ron Daniels, assistant base civil engineer. He says the about 17,000-square-foot project likely will go to bid this October. He says construction on that building is scheduled to start in April 2000 and to be completed a year later.


The hydrant fuel system addition, which includes adding 20 airplane fueling stations and replacing the bases current 19 fueling stations, is expected to go to bid this November. Daniels says construction on the two-year project is slated to start next spring.


Base engineers recently completed an environmental assessment for the flightline support facility and found the project had no significant impact on the environment. Design of the 54,000-square-foot building is under way, and base officials say construction bids on the design-build project are expected to be sought early next year. Construction is expected to start in August or September of the year 2000 and to be completed in the late summer or early fall of 2001.


Design work hasnt started yet on the Air National Guard support facility, and Daniels says he doesnt know whether a construction timetable has been established yet.


Congress has earmarked $2.2 million for the National Guard armory here, and National Guard and local officials alike initially thought that money would go toward the design of a proposed combined public safety facility in East Spokane to be used by local, state, and federal agencies. However, proponents of that proposed two-building, 88,000-square-foot facility now say theres confusion about whether the federal money can be used for the proposed shared complex. Spokane City Councilman Jeff Colliton, a proponent of the shared facility and a retired military officer, says backers of that project are investigating the issue now and still are hoping that the federal money can be used as originally planned for design of the facility.


If the money can be put toward the shared facility, the federal funds will be combined with previously appropriated state money, which would pay the $3 million design cost. The entire project has an estimated cost of $30 million.


Backers of the project, which currently is proposed on five acres of city-owned land on Indiana Avenue just east of Spokane Community College, say design work could be completed next year, and construction could start in 2001.


Potential uses for a shared facility would be an armory that could accommodate an Army National Guard unit with 800 personnel, an administrative and training center for city and county agencies, a small-weapons indoor qualification range, classrooms, and offices.


The Fiscal Year 2000 appropriation is about $10 million more than the amount Congress appropriated for infrastructure improvements at Fairchild in the previous fiscal year. Projects funded last fiscal year include a $7.62 KC-135 squadron support center, $5 million in new housing and a new housing office, and a $3.9 million survival academic-training support center.