LIMESTONE (AP) – Northern Maine officials are vowing to fight the Defense Department’s recommendation to close a military processing center that employs more than 350 workers at the former Loring Air Force Base.

The Pentagon on Friday released a list of military bases and facilities that it is proposing to close or realign as part of a plan to save nearly $49 billion over 20 years.

The inclusion of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service office at the Loring Commerce Centre came as a shock to people in central Aroostook County. Some called the announcement the county’s “second base closing,” in reference to Loring Air Force Base being closed in 1994.

The DFAS opened in 1995 and helps the military with payroll and bill payments for 18 Air Force bases and 20 Air National Guard units.

“I never would have thought they would have closed us twice,” said Carl Flora, president of the Loring Development Authority. “This is right out of left field. There was no advance notice. We did not hear a thing, most likely because it’s not a military base.”

The Defense Department in its announcement said 241 jobs were involved in the closure.

Counting indirect and support the jobs, there are more than 350 positions at the center.

The Loring Development Authority said jobs pay an average of $32,000 to $35,000 a year.

The Aroostook Partnership for Progress, a new organization that aims to bring jobs to Aroostook County, said it would fight the closure in partnership with the Northern Maine Development Commission, Maine Public Service Co. and Leaders Encouraging Aroostook Development.

Walt Elish, executive director of Aroostook Partnership for Progress, said an action plan would be drawn up this week.

“I am extremely disappointed,” he said.

The closing is another blow to Aroostook county, which saw its population fall by nearly 20 percent between 1980 and 2000, in large part because of a lack of jobs.

“This is incredibly irrational,” said state Sen. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake. “How they expect the people off northern Maine to survive?”

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

AP-ES-05-15-05 1331EDT