Fairchild Air Force Base is proposing to build a $10 million to $15 million central deployment center on base, and is asking that funding for that project be included in the federal governments fiscal 2002 budget.


Lee Paul, chief engineer at Fairchild, says the facility, technically called a consolidated mobility facility, would include about 56,000 square feet of space.


Though the base is proposing the project for funding in 2002, the project could be held off until as late as 2007, Paul says.


The building would house several operations that would provide equipment or services needed by military personnel when theyre deployed for a military operation. That would include everything from a medical office where personnel could get vaccinations, to a counter at which weapons could be issued, to an office at which a service member could draft a will.


The concept is that you walk through the door at one end, and when you walk though the door at the other end, you have everything you need to get on a plane and be deployed, Paul says.


Such services currently are scattered all over the base, he says.


Base engineers recently completed an environmental assessment at the site for the proposed facility and concluded that the project wouldnt have a significant impact on the environment.


The proposed facility would be built along the northeast side of the bases flightline, next to a $9.1 million flightline support facility thats under construction. That 54,000-square-foot facility should be completed by early next fall.