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Guard center deal set

Pentagon contract to be worth $10.8 million

By Jim Skeen, Staff Writer The Daily News

LANCASTER -- The Pentagon awarded a $10.8 million contract to a Salt Lake City company for the construction of a National Guard readiness center near Lancaster's Fox Field.

For use by the 170-member 756th Transportation Company and the 206-man 49th Quartermaster Company, the readiness center is scheduled to be completed in March 2006 on 28 acres east of 50th Street West and south of the airport, according to a Pentagon announcement of the contract with ProTech Corp.

The readiness center will consist of a two-story building of 52,837 square feet of office and training space and two stand-alone buildings totaling 3,800 square feet, according to construction bid documents.

There would be a small cadre of full-time workers at the center. The rest of the 756th and the quartermaster personnel would be traditional "weekend warriors" who serve one weekend a month and a two-week annual tour of duty, unless their units are called up for extended active duty.

The readiness center site was part of 120 acres of airport property the city acquired from Los Angeles County in 2000 for $1.38 million. Other parcels of that 120 acres have been sold to developers who plan on constructing mostly "spec" buildings -- built on speculation that a company will be interested, rather than tailor-made for a specific tenant.

Part of the property was also sold to an unidentified Fortune 50 company that is planning to establish a 117,000-square-foot warehouse/distribution center, creating an estimated 100 jobs.

Lancaster's redevelopment agency sold the readiness center site to the state for $1 million.

"A significant portion of the proceeds went to off-site improvements, the most visible being the construction of 45th Street (from the readiness center to Avenue G)," said Mark Bozigian, assistant to the city manager for redevelopment. "That will be completed by mid-November."

The readiness center is in an area called the Fox Field Corridor, which stretches from the airport to the Antelope Valley Freeway. City officials envision the area as a center for commercial and industrial development.

Projects already completed in the corridor are a Rite Aid drug store distribution center and a Michaels craft store distribution center. Also in the corridor is the new Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.

Guardsmen coming home

by Charles F. Bostwick, Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- The Antelope Valley will welcome home on Monday more than 60 National Guardsmen back from a year in Iraq.

The Palmdale-based tank company's soldiers landed Sunday night at Vandenberg Air Force Base and are spending six days at Camp Roberts in Central California before getting home Monday by buses.

"It would be awful nice if they saw a strong Antelope Valley community stepping out to say 'welcome,"' Mayor Jim Ledford said.

A short welcome-home ceremony is planned for Monday between about 11 a.m. and noon Monday at Poncitlan Square, on 9th Street East south of Palmdale Boulevard.

City officials from Palmdale and Apple Valley, where some of the men live, will welcome them. Organizers are trying to arrange for the Palmdale High School band to perform.

Before the guardsmen's arrival, their wives will be at the nearby Chimbole Cultural Center for a meeting with Guard officials, and city parks staffers will do arts and crafts projects with their children, city spokeswoman Barbara La Fata said.

The unit -- Company B of the 185th Armor Regiment's 1st Battalion -- is returning to California after spending more than one year on active duty, most of the time in Iraq.

The company was among more than 900 California National Guard soldiers who were in Iraq as the 185th Task Force.

The 185th's soldiers guarded truck convoys and did other security duties, and also dug wells and repaired culverts, restored hundreds of miles of roads, reconstructed bridges and rebuilt a school.

Five 185th troopers were killed in combat: two were shot in ambushes, one died in a mortar attack, and two were killed by improvised explosive devices, Lt. Col. Doug Hart said.

None of the dead was from Palmdale. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger attended the unit's send-off at Fort Irwin near Barstow last March.

Schwarzenegger issued a statement about the unit's return: "Your mission was a successful one and because of your efforts, Americans and Iraqis have greater freedom and democracy. I want to thank you on behalf of all Americans for helping safeguard this incredible gift of liberty we often take for granted."

Charles F. Bostwick, (661) 267-5742 chuck.bostwick@dailynews.com

Big doings planned for Guard's homecoming

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Wednesday, February 23, 2005.

By JAMES C. LOUGHRIE
Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Two events to welcome back from Iraq members of the California Army National Guard are in the works.

A large public celebration is on tap for this summer to let the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale say "Thank you" and "Welcome home" to GIs who served in the Iraq war from the Antelope Valley's two National Guard units.

First up, though, is a ceremony for the Bravo Company of the 185th Division National Guard - whenever those troops arrive home.

"We're looking at what's booked right now in some of facilities," said Barbara La Fata, a spokeswoman for the city of Palmdale who is involved in planning the festivities.

La Fata said the event could take place at the Palmdale Playhouse, the Larry Chimbole Cultural Center, Poncitl

n Square or the Richard B. Hammack Recreation Center. It all depends on when she gets a call that the GIs are coming home and what's available.

Tammi Bennett, whose husband is a member of the Palmdale-based National Guard unit, said the soldiers could be home within the next few weeks.

"We still don't know the day the guys are coming," she said.

Bennett makes up part of a team of National Guard wives who have been planning the public welcome for Guard units.

For the party greeting the 185th Division, which will be open to the immediate families of National Guard members, Bennett praised the city for its efforts.

"This is an undertaking that is far beyond our scope, but they (the city of Palmdale) don't want us to have to worry about a thing," she said. "They want us to just relax and take a break."

The public will be invited to the larger ceremony this summer.

"We wanted to plan a whole Antelope Valley-wide ceremony in the summer," La Fata said.

In addition to involvement from Palmdale and Lancaster, Bennett said a planning meeting Friday was attended by representatives from the offices of Assemblywoman Sharon Runner and Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich.