BRAC impact being felt now By LARRY SEE JR. What is described as a truly exciting, transformational change for Meade County is underway. “And this area should feel honored, as I have worked with over 200 workforce development groups and you have done an outstanding job here,” ERISS Corporation co-founder Barbara Nyegaard said. Nyegaard opened a July 10 meeting, convened by the Lincoln Trail Area Development District, to discuss the expected influx of soldiers and families to Fort Knox. Nyegaard also praised the local, state and national collaborations the group has formed as they welcome the soldiers and families. “It’s all going to add up to a really great project and you have made some incredible strides here in a really short period,” she said. Workforce Associates representative Richard Judy urged business owners to be prepared for the expected influx. He told the audience, gathered in the historic State Theater complex in Elizabethtown, the BRAC impacted region, which for the study purposes included Meade, Breckinridge, Grayson, Hardin, Larue, Marion, Washington and Bullitt counties, is growing faster than similar areas in Kentucky or nationally, but the population and workforce aren’t ethnically diversified. “Only 1 percent of your workforce is in the computer and mathematical occupations area, compared to 8 percent in the D.C. metro area,” Judy said. “That is a very large percentage of the population there and you have a very different kind of workforce in this region,” he said. “The BRAC impacted region workforce is strongly ‘blue collar’ in its occupational composition.” In the production occupation category, the LTADD was rated with 16 percent of the employees in this area, as compared with 2 percent in the D.C. area. “There is going to be a huge demand for high-end white collar jobs,” Judy predicted. Statistics presented by Judy showed the region’s workforce to be weak in the business, financial and computer occupations. “The population is growing rapidly and that’s a good thing,” Judy said, but he countered by saying the salary wages aren’t as high as what Army civilians are expecting. “The area is not ethnically diverse and it also offers some educational challenges,” he said, reiterating the fact the BRAC area is heavily blue-collar. “You are weak in business, financial and computer areas, the kinds of occupations the Army civilians will be filling,” he said. Since the area is weak, that means the job scales for those positions are lower than what jobs in other areas are paying. Since the wage scales are lower, Judy said, that meant finding jobs for the soldier’s civilian counterparts will be difficult. “That could be considered a negative fact in the attraction of spouses,” he said. A person at the step five median pay level, earns $32,710, according to Judy’s statistics, with the average pay for the same person at a step 10 level is $54,580. Judy said nearly half of the authorized personnel are coming in at a step 10 level or higher. The wages increase to $59,967 at step 11; $71,874 at step 12; $85,470 at step 13; $100,996 at step 13 and $118,803 at step 14. On the bright side, the cost of living locally is a lot less than in the D.C. area, Judy said, which is a factor in the LTADD’s benefit. In Virginia, the cost of living is 179.9 percent, compared with 83.61 percent in the LTADD area. “That means their Army money will go a lot further,” Judy said. He also said the population surge will be minimal, and then it will balloon in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, when both the civilian and military populations will spike considerably. “It will go from about 16,000 to 22,000,” Judy said. “And there will be an additional 4,000 to 5,000 civilian people.” “That is going to mean there is going to be a lot of purchasing power injected into these communities,” he said. “There will be an additional $100 million just in the civilian area and they’ll be bringing more money into the community. That is going to result in a big boost of purchasing power.” “In the early part of 2009, you will see a lot of military followed by a wave of civilians,” Judy summarized. “The civilian sector will be spread out. You still do have some time to plan, but the big changes are beginning to happen in 2009.” Judy cautioned the numbers he was giving the business owners were still “soft,” and subject to fluctuation, but said they were the best numbers they had. Information about the study’s fundings and summaries of the previous discussions can be found in the “BRAC Planning” section of the downloads page of the development district’s Web site at www.ltadd.org
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