The tailor’s sewing machine hummed, the barber’s clippers clacked and the cash registers rang inside the Great Lakes Concession in North Chicago Friday.
The discordant sounds were sweet music to Young Han, the concession’s owner, who is expecting that cacophony to crescendo, along with a dramatic increase in the number of workers at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center.
Just a week ago, Han’s two-year-old business appeared doomed as rumors spread that the training center would be closed. But Friday morning the base’s life was not only spared but its future brightened by news that an additional 9,000 jobs would be relocated to Great Lakes. A joyous Han and her staff literally danced around the store as the news flashed on a television set.
“I am so glad they decided not to close the base,” said Han, whose business is just across the street from the base. “We will do better service to the community people who trade with us. We will make the sailors more at home.”
Lake County economic development officials predicted that expanding the base would inject an estimated $50 million to $60 million annually into the area’s economy and spawn nearly 12,000 new private sector jobs.
“It’s going to be great for the city, Lake County and for the state,” said David El-Aboudi, North Chicago Chamber of Commerce president. “It’s going to help out old businesses as well as entice new businesses to come in.”
The expansion of Great Lakes, however, still has to be approved by the federal Base Closure and Realignment Commission, President Clinton and Congress. Historically, those leaders have gone along with Pentagon recommendations, but fierce opposition is expected from San Diego and Orlando, which are slated to lose major Navy installations.
Education officials fear a base expansion would bring hundreds more students to the faltering North Chicago schools, which are already threatening to dissolve under the weight of an estimated $1.5 million operating deficit.
“Depending on how many kids you’d add, it could be devastating,” said Kim Knauer, spokeswoman for the Illinois State Board of Education.
The North Chicago schools are in trouble, in part, because about 41 percent of its 4,300 students are the dependents of people stationed at Great Lakes. The base is tax-exempt, so the federal government provides “impact aid” to cover the cost of education. Those payments, however, represent only one-third to one-half the actual tuition.
“We’re going to have to consider impact aid an even more serious problem than it is now,” said Martin McConahay, comptroller for the North Chicago schools.
It is too early to determine how many more military-connected students could end up in North Chicago schools, McConahay said. The number who come depends, in part, on the age of those stationed at the base. Young recruits, those age 18 and 19, have few children. But their drill instructors, who are older and more established in their careers, are more likely to have school-age youngsters.
“We have room to expand if we need to do that, but the concern would be the impact aid,” McConahay said. “That puts a heavier burden on the district by having a gap between impact aid amount and expenditures.”
North Chicago school officials have not been calculating a change in the Great Lakes population into their financial projections because the base’s future has been so uncertain, McConahay said.
“The Navy seemed so up in the air we could be second-guessing them until we’re blue in the face,” he said.
Illinois politicians, who have been seeking extra impact aid for North Chicago, said the base’s growth would hurt the schools.
“North Chicago’s schools are the losers,” said Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.), who represents North Chicago in Congress. “You’ll have more kids, but the school district will have insufficient money to educate them.”
“We’ll have to get more money,” Porter added.
But whether extra funds can be found before North Chicago’s schools fold is uncertain.
“The difficulty is the school system is in such severe straits and the question is whether they can hang on,’ said Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill).
“When the money will get there, I can’t tell you,” he said. “My assumption is that movement will be slow and that it won’t happen until after the 1993-1994 school year.”
A substantial increase in the number of military-connected students at Great Lakes could kick the base into a different payment category, meaning impact aid would increase, federal lawmakers said.
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“What is clear is North Chicago will be eligible for a substantial increase in school aid,” Simon said.
But state education officials warned that the federal government has not always followed the impact aid rules. Aid has been cut, and the federal government has been slow to respond when inadequate aid payments lead to financial trouble for local schools.
“The federal government’s track record with impact aid hasn’t been strong, so I don’t think there should be any assumptions there’ll be more money right away,” Knauer said.
But last week, the only aspects of a Great Lakes expansion that county officials wanted to stress were the positive ones.
Lake County Board Chairman Robert Depke (R-Gurnee) said the proposed expansion of Great Lakes would be the best of all worlds for the local economy.
Keeping Great Lakes open is “going to save the military money,” Depke said. “At the same time, we’re going to be the beneficiaries of all the money those new people bring to Lake County.”
The extra jobs will benefit a much broader area than North Chicago, said Bob Chave, Lake County Planning Department director. More Navy recruits mean more business for Gurnee Mills and Great America, and from downtown Chicago to Wisconsin.
“It casts its net pretty wide in Lake County because people who are employed in Great Lakes are coming from a fair distance away, some commute even from Wisconsin,” Chave said of an expansion’s economic impact.
But local business leaders should not become too caught up in the euphoria, cautioned Marcus Corbin, a defense analyst at the non-profit Center for Defense Information in Washington.
Although the base’s future looks good today, that could change, he said. Business leaders would do well to try to diversify the North Chicago economy.
“It’s a general principle that the world is becoming a more friendly place, despite all the fuss over Somalia and Yugoslavia,” Corbin said. “A base, even if it’s being expanded now, does not have good long-term prospects.
“This should be regarded as an opportunity to get ahead of the game rather than as a permanent respite,” Corbin said.