Foley to provide Navy services at Barin Field
Foley to provide Navy services at Barin Field
Foley and the U.S.Navy are working to expand a cooperative arrangement more than 80 years old with an agreement for the city to provide services at Barin Field.
The Foley City Council approved a letter of intent with the Navy’s Whiting Field in Pensacola. City Administrator Mike Thompson said the proposal would allow Foley to perform work at Barin Field, but does not obligate the city to any specific duties.
“What we’re doing is entering into an arrangement with Whiting Field that would allow the city to perform some work that they might need to have done over at Barin Field,” Thompson said.. “This is something that they’ve tested around the country with local governmental agencies, either municipalities or counties where they seek out a local government agency to try to manage some of the services that they might need over there.”
Randy Roy, naval operational liaison officer with Whiting Field, said similar agreements in other areas have reduced costs for the Navy. He said local governments often have more resources available at lower prices than the Navy.
“You’re talking about basic things that we normally pay for, roads, maybe some repairs, things that you typically have within your bandwidth which you already support,” Roy said. “It’s whether or not those things come to fruition. There’s no dollars that are coming from your coffers to go to this.”
Roy said Foley and South Alabama have a long tradition of supporting the Navy. Barin Field has been a training site for Navy aviators since the facility opened as a base in 1942. Today, the field is not an active base, but is still used for Whiting Field training flights.
“The folks that live here in this area support the Navy,” Roy said. “We talk to your senior leadership a lot about the importance of what this area does for the Navy.”
He said Foley’s recent designation by the National Park Service as an American World War II Heritage City is one recognition of the city’s long-time support for the military and national defense.
Roy said locations such as Barin Field and other sites in Alabama play a key part in military aviation training. “The ability to do what we do at Whiting Field cannot be done without Alabama,” he said. “There are six of our airfields located in Alabama that we fly at. We’ve got two over here, Barin Field and Summerdale. We have others on the other side of Alabama.”