General: N.C. to get 11,500 more Marines

[unhappycamper]

General: N.C. to get 11,500 more Marines
By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Oct 15, 2007 11:56:55 EDT

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — The Corps will send an estimated 11,500 additional military and civilian personnel to eastern North Carolina as part of its end-strength increase, the commander of Marine Corps Installations-East announced Friday.

With dependents, Marine officials project a population increase of 21,000 people to the area.

“Ladies and gentlemen, that’s pretty significant,” Maj. Gen. Robert Dickerson said to a packed Jacksonville City Hall audience. “These numbers are as firm as we know right now.”

By 2011, when the Corps plans to reach an end strength of 202,000, an additional 11,477 Marines, sailors and supporting Defense Department employees will be stationed at Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Stations Cherry Point in Havelock and New River in Jacksonville.

The additional military and civilian personnel are expected to bring big money to the area. But the extra growth will have its cost, straining infrastructure, including roads and public schools.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue said the population increase will pose “good challenges.”


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/10/marine_northcarolina_071014/