Coast Guard buys helicopters, tripling personnel at airport
JAA will pay for $2 million worth of improvements to two structures at Cecil Field .
By TIMOTHY J. GIBBONS, The Times-Union
As the Coast Guard's Helicopter Interdiction Squadron Jacksonville switches to new aircraft over the next year, the squadron will grow from the 76 personnel it had before this summer to about 235, requiring it to take over two buildings at Cecil Field
The Jacksonville Aviation Authority will pay up to $2 million to renovate the structures, one of which is an office building and the other a hangar.
The office building will provide work space for the support staff and other workers who will come on board as the squadron - whose job it is to stop drug smugglers on the high seas - replaces its fleet of eight leased Augusta helicopters (MH-68A, left) with 10 Dolphin H-65 (HH-65C, below) helicopters that it will own.
The Dolphins are the same sort of aircraft used by the rest of the Coast Guard but are modified slightly to make them better suited for deep sea chases and other military-like maneuvers.
When the squadron was first set up, the Coast Guard didn't have aircraft on hand to equip it with, hence opting for the leased aircraft. "This allows us to continue with the plan we had originally, to do our job with Coast Guard-owned helicopters," Capt. Edward W. Greiner, commanding officer of the squadron, said about the new aircraft.
The shift to ownership is the main reason for the increase in personnel. While manufacturer Augusta had provided seasoned technicians to service the crafts, the Coast Guard will shift that work to a broader array of junior officers, Greiner said. New personnel started transferring into the squadron this summer, Greiner said, with another influx expected next summer. The majority of the new workers will do repair and maintenance work, although some new pilots and other jobs will also be created.
The office building the Coast Guard is moving into had been used as an F-18 simulation training and administration facility, when Cecil Field was a navy base, prior to being turned over to the city in 1999.
The Jacksonville Aviation Authority will spend up to $1 million to renovate the structure, which the Coast Guard will pay $590,646 a year to lease for the next five years.
The money for the renovation is coming from funds set aside to build a hangar for aircraft manufacturer Embraer, a Brazilian company that had been slated to come to Cecil Field until the deal fell through.
Engineers will start working on the redesign of the two-story office building this week. Design work is expected to take four to six weeks, with another three to four months budgeted for construction.
"It's a good win-win situation for us," said Aviation Authority spokesman Michael Stewart. "It's vacant space now. It provides space for the Coast Guard to grow and increases the business space out there at Cecil."
Lease negotiations for the hangar have not yet concluded, with the contract not expected to be signed until the authority's new fiscal year begins in October. Refurbishment of Hangar 13, the one the Coast Guard is expected to move into, should cost about $1 million, the authority said.
