Robert Torricelli: “countless thousands of American soldiers received their basic training at Fort Dix Army Base in my home State of New…”

“countless thousands of American soldiers received their basic training at Fort Dix Army Base in my home State of New Jersey. However, the 1988 BRAC reassigned the basic-training mission of Fort Dix into a much more limited training role for our reserve forces. The economic impact in the surrounding communities was devastating. Local merchants whose business depended upon business generated by the Army personnel at Fort Dix suddenly saw their consumer base gone along with 3,500 jobs and countless others in the subsequent years. With funding assistance from the Federal Government and the Burlington County Department of Economic Development, a new master plan was drafted to reduce the area's reliance on the military and begin development of a downtown shopping area as well as new housing facilities. While the community struggles to re-build, the majority of the land formerly occupied by Fort Dix has been moth-balled and sits idle. For years, the community has been negotiating with the Army to acquire a 35-acre plot of land owned at Fort Dix owned by the Federal Government for use in the downtown development. I am pleased that this transfer now enjoys the support of the Army and that an amendment to transfer this 35 acres to the Borough of Wrightstown along with an additional 5 acres to the New Hanover Board of Education for an expected expansion of the school was included in H.R. 1119 that recently passed the House of Representatives.”