'City' of Fort Meade Grows With BRAC

From the offices of the Howard County Economic Development Authority in Columbia, Raj Kudchadkar recently gave an update about Fort. Meade – and especially about what its expansion will mean to the area.

"You need to picture Fort Meade as a city, as opposed to a military installation," said Kudchadkar, deputy director of the Howard County Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) office.

Like any city, Fort Meade offers a variety of services and amenities: movie theater, golf courses, child care services, swimming pools, bowling alley, library, sports fields, pet care center, RV park and auto repair services.

But though the fort is a military base – with 15,000 members of all branches of the military and their families living on post – less than 15 percent of the 41,000 working there are active military personnel.

The rest are white-collar civilian workers. There are also 85 tenant agencies and some resident government entities people may not expect to find on base.

"The Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] has a lab there, one of the largest labs around. The Library of Congress has a large book depository there. So you may go to check out a book from the Library of Congress and it might be actually coming from Fort Meade. Veterans Affairs is also there," said Kudchadkar.

While it's not difficult to picture Fort Meade as a city, it is difficult to picture the amount of money the base brings to Maryland each year, especially because the number is so large: $18 billion.

And with BRAC, that number will increase.

In fact, Kudchadkar pointed out that no state is gaining more per capita through this  than Maryland.

Forces moving up

Along with the increase in dollars pumped into the economy by the added tenants and buildings, there's also the workforce moving up from Virginia. 

, which is in the process of moving 4,272 employees into their new building on post.

There are plenty of computer and electrical engineers employed at DISA. Members of its workforce have an average salary of $108,000 a year and an average of 18 years experience in their respective disciplines.

Spring will see the peak of those workers coming to Fort Meade at 2,000 per month, and all workers should have arrived by early this summer.

"DISA is moving because they are in a building in Virginia that's exposed. At Fort Meade, they'll be on a 5,000-acre installation that's fenced with security," Kudchadkar said.

Among DISA's responsibilities is protecting the information grid for government communications.

The other Maryland military installations that gained from BRAC are Fort Detrick, Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Bethesda Naval Base and Andrews Air Force Base.

Small businesses get a boost

One of the issues the BRAC office is now focusing on is small businesses and connecting them to opportunities provided by BRAC.

The  (BBI), which assists small and minority-owned businesses, was started in 2009 by Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, Howard Community College President Kate Hetherington and Congressman Elijah Cummings.

BBI lays out the process for business owners, and it's become a popular resource.

"There are 1,200 companies who are members of BBI and 5,000 on our e-mail distribution list," said Kudchadkar.

There's no charge to join, and general membership meetings held every five or six weeks serve as primers for businesses on how to begin navigating their way through the process that could make them part of the ongoing growth of the "city" of Fort Meade and beyond.

"Some people may question why Howard County has a BRAC office when Fort Meade is in Anne Arundel County," Kudchadkar said.

But, he said, the base is only two miles from the Howard County line.

"And Fort Meade is the largest employer of Howard County citizens," he said.

The Howard County BRAC office can be reached at (410) 313-6376. For business information, visit the BBI site at www.bbimatch-up.com.