CONTACT: Lt. Col. Richard Goldenberg, 518-727-7314

FOR RELEASE: Wednesday, Aug 25, 2010

ON SITE: Lt. Col. Richard Goldenberg, 518-727-7314

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (08/23/2010)-- Members of the Long Island media are invited to tour the new Armed Forces Reserve Center nearing completion in Farmingdale. This facility will jointly house Reserve Component elements of the National Guard, Army Reserve, Naval Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve. WHAT: Media tour of the progress of the Armed Forces Reserve Center. WHO: New York Army National Guard site representative Capt. Stephen Kitchen provides an update of the construction and benefits of the new site. WHERE: 25 Baiting Place Road, Farmingdale, New York, 11735 WHEN: Wednesday, August 25 at 2 p.m. BACKGROUND: The new Armed Forces Reserve Center in Farmingdale will house some 1,000 troops, administration and support elements of the New York Army National Guard, U.S. Army Reserve, Navy Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve when complete later this year. The facility, with more than 225,000 square feet, will sustain some 150 military vehicles and include a dozen maintenance bays to support equipment readiness. The $86 million, four-story, state-of-the-art center will contain administrative offices, storage space for military equipment, classrooms, conference rooms and training areas for the maintenance and operation of military equipment. The facility's central location on Long Island was developed to better serve the reservists from all over the island while giving the New York Army National Guard an advantage in local response. As part of the Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure Committee (BRAC), the new center will consolidate New York Army National Soldiers from multiple New York State Armory sites. The realignment of National Guard forces will both save funds from maintaining numerous sites and provide today's Citizen Soldiers with modern, technological and sustainable training and administration space. The committee recommended that the U.S. Army Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve close Reserve Centers in Uniondale and Amityville and re-locate units into the new Farmingdale site. The new facility will also absorb New York National Guard troops from Bayshore, Freeport, Huntington Station, Patchogue and Riverhead and the Field Maintenance Shop in Bayshore. Results of the commission report can be found at http://www.hqda.army.mil/acsim/brac/StateInstallationBreakdown/NYReserveComponent.pdf. The lead contractor for the facility, J. Kokolakis Construction employs as many as 200 various tradesmen at one team during the facility's construction over the past two years.

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