Work on Army Air Base May Start In
September; Give Up Land August 31st;
Permanent Brick and Stucco Buildings
Local Information Rather Indefinite but Enough Is Avail-
able to Show the Construction of the Air Base Will Be
Pushed; Finance Drive Succeeds.
Work upon the advanced army air base four miles south of town may possibly be started during September, it was learned today as the drive for $30,000 for purchase of the site entered its last stages.
With only a small number of "clean-up" calls still to be made upon people who were out of town Teusday, the committee in charge of the drive felt that the goal was practicaly assured and attention turned to the possible date for start of construction.
Under commitments given by the city to army officials, the city has agreed to secure possession of the necessary land and turn it over to the army within 20 days after notice to them by the army that it has approved the site of the camp.
Although city officials are not certain as to the army's procedure regarding such "official notice," they are proceeding upon the theory that notice Monday from army officials authorizing them to proceed is the notice required.
Give Land Aug. 31
If this is true, the city will be required under its agreement to give possession of the land to the army on August 31, and construction will then depend upon the army plans.
Ross Malone, Jr., city attorney and president of the Chamber of Commerce, said today that his own idea is that work will start in September.
"I would think actual work would start between 30 and 45 days," he said. "However, this is only my idea and I could be far wrong on it."
The procedure in other towns (Continued To Page Three)
Although no notice of the army's plans is known to have been transmitted locally, the stories which first brought the news that Roswell had definitely been selected for the site, said that one million dollars had been appropriated for immediate construction.
Mofett Field, which the local base will at least partly replace is being turned over to the navy for a blimp base, and the army has agreed to vacate it inside of 8 months.
A considerable portion of the land to be purchased by the city is owned by persons who can not be immediately contacted, and condemnation proceedings are being instituted where this is necessary. Although acquisition of actual title to the land may require somewhat extended legal procedure, Malone anticipated this would not prevent he city from gaining actual possession of the land in time to turn it over to the army in the agreed space of time.
Permanent Construction
Under plans as outlined to local officials by the army, construction here will be of brick and stucco and will be of a permanent type. First contacts of the army here indicated that a temporary base was under consideration, but later it became apparent that the army had decided to make the Roswell field a permanent air base, Malone announced at a meeting several days ago.
Information apparently is not available here as to the amount of money which the army expects to spend on the Roswell base. A telegram Friday from Senator Chavez said that $6,500,000 would be spent, while army officials indicated to the Associated Press that more money might be available from other sources.
The navy is reputedly paying the army the $6,500,000 mentioned in the Chavez telegram for Moffett Field, but whether or not this will all be used for the construction here is not known, since some of the present activities of Moffett Field may be separated into more than one air field.
Indication by the army officials that money other than that paid them by the navy for Moffett Field may be available, however, lent strong support to the belief that the air base here will be carried to completion on its present projected broad scale regardless of whether funds from sale of Moffett Field are all earmarked for the Roswell construction.
