Arkansas News, AR
04-26-06
Arkansas in tough fight for research facility
By Aaron Sadler
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas faces strong competition and a political fight in its effort to land a $450 million federal research facility, the man leading a campaign to bring the project to Jefferson County said Tuesday.
Art Norris told directors of the Arkansas Biosciences Institute that the state's bid for the facility was one of 29 presented to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security last month.
Norris is working with a Pine Bluff economic development group to attract the proposed National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility to southeast Arkansas. Researchers at the facility will study foreign animal diseases and diseases, like bird flu, that could be transferred to humans.
The 500,000-square-foot facility is expected to employ at least 250 people.
Norris said the state should know by the fall whether it is a finalist for the facility, which he said would be constructed on Pine Bluff Arsenal property. It would be adjacent to the National Center for Toxicological Research.
Norris, a former deputy director of NCTR, said the security of the arsenal and the concentration of research components at NCTR make location of the facility in southeast Arkansas ideal.
Earlier this month, specialty magazine The Scientist identified a California university consortium, a three-university group in North Carolina's research triangle, Kansas State University, Texas A&M and Iowa State University as groups with the best chance of getting the facility. All are near agricultural lab complexes.
Texas A&M is already the site of the National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense.
Arkansas' proposal is backed by the organizations that make up the biosciences institute, elected officials and the Louisiana State University veterinary program. Norris said the federal government required a college of veterinary medicine to be involved in every proposal.
The Arkansas Biosciences Institute includes scientists from the University of Arkansas and its medical school, Arkansas State University and Arkansas Children's Hospital. The institute directs the research component of the state's proceeds from its settlement with tobacco companies.
Norris asked institute directors to lobby Arkansas' congressional delegation and local and state leaders for the facility.
"Who knows what level of politics will be involved in this?" he said. "This is a huge effort, so you can expect some level of political influence."
He said the congressional delegation and Gov. Mike Huckabee have written letters to the Department of Homeland Security in support of the Jefferson County site.
Attorney General Mike Beebe and former Homeland Security undersecretary Asa Hutchinson signed letters of support also, Norris said.
Beebe, a Democrat, and Hutchinson, a Republican, are the major party candidates for governor.
Hutchinson said he offered the Arkansas consortium the benefit of his Homeland Security experience in helping them through the first step of vying for the facility.
However, Hutchinson said he doubted the department's location decision will be tied to politics.
"These decisions are made on their merits," Hutchinson said Tuesday. "Whenever you're looking at the defense of our country and homeland security issues, politics is diminished substantially."
The facility is likely a replacement for the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York.
Plum Island, once a Department of Agriculture facility, was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Government officials said Plum Island is too old and too small to properly research diseases and combat bioterrorism.
Regardless of whether Arkansas is awarded the project, UA Vice President for Agriculture Milo Shult said the effort highlights how science can be utilized for economic development purposes.
According to The Scientist, a University of Georgia study indicated that the facility would have an economic impact of between $3.5 billion and $6 billion over 20 years. Salaries over two decades would reach $2.5 billion, the report stated.