Congressman Walter B. Jones has stepped up his efforts to get the Navy to drop Camden County from consideration for a pilot training field.

In a letter sent last week to Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter, Jones, R-N.C., urges the Navy to halt its planned two-year study of the Hales Lake site for an outlying landing field.

File photo (ENLARGE)

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., speaks to crowd of outlying landing field opponents at Moyock Elementary School in Moyock, Saturday, April 12.

"I commend the Navy for its efforts to find a suitable location for its requirements," Jones' letter states. "However, I do not believe American taxpayers' money should be spent on a study of this site."

The Navy is evaluating five sites for the proposed OLF: the Hales Lake site in Camden County, the Sandbanks site in Gates County, and three sites in Virginia. The Navy says it needs an OLF to help pilots practice touch-and-go maneuvers in conditions that simulate carrier-based landings.

Residents of communities surrounding all potential sites have expressed concerns about how the jet noise could affect their quality of life.

In his letter to Winter, Jones reiterated his opposition to an OLF in Camden. For at least a decade, Jones says he has publicly encouraged the Navy to consider a site for a new OLF at or near Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.

"I have long opposed a site in northeastern North Carolina," Jones' letter reads. "Previous efforts by the Navy to build an OLF in Washington County were unproductive and the same mistakes do not need to be repeated."

Jones also notes that the opposition to the OLF in Camden and Currituck counties is overwhelming.

"The economic development of Camden and Currituck counties is significantly hampered by the consideration of this site for an OLF," Jones' letter states. "Camden County would be forced to sacrifice valuable farmland from the tax roster and future economic losses are anticipated by the county. Furthermore, hosting an OLF would cause these counties to lose the attractiveness of the area's quality of life and would prevent them from developing in a manner compatible with their long-range plans."

Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Cindy Moore said the environmental impact study process kicked off on April 9, and will move forward.

"The Navy is committed to working with the citizens and elected officials of Virginia and North Carolina to identify opportunities for economic benefits at which ever site is ultimately chosen," she said. "This collaboration has already resulted in many suggestions to enable a community to economically benefit from the presence of an outlying landing field."

The Navy has said that the OLF would bring 62 civilian jobs with an annual payroll $4.2 million.

Moore said the community that hosts the OLF could benefit not only from these jobs and related spending directly associated with them, but potentially the development of commercial distribution centers, industrial or office parks, or community forests.

"We know there are other possibilities, and that not every idea will work at every site," she said. "We want to continue this dialogue with the states and communities and elected officials as we move ahead. ... "

Jones' letter follows recent criticism of the congressman by his Republican opponent in Tuesday's primary, Joe McLaughlin, and a Democrat seeking his seat in the Democratic Party primary, Marshall Adame.

On Tuesday, Adame said Jones' letter to the Navy does not go far enough.

"Not only is (the letter) a day late and a dollar short, the representative should be the voice of the people," Adame said. "(His constituents) don't want it. (The OLF) provides no benefit whatsoever (to North Carolina). Where is the outrage on this congressman's part?"

Adame said Jones' letter to Winter illustrates a pattern by the incumbent congressman.

"Now that he sees that the OLF was defeated in one part of North Carolina (Washington County), he knows he has to step in to placate people," Adame said. "He has to make a mediocre comment that means absolutely nothing. He should be standing with his constituents saying, (the OLF will come to North Carolina) over my dead body."

McLaughlin was also skeptical of the timing of Jones' letter.

"It is apparent that the overwhelming voice of the people, combined with the pressure of Tuesday's Republican primary have forced Walter Jones off the fence-sitting posture that he has become so prone to on the OLF issue," McLaughlin said. "The citizens of Camden and Currituck counties can feel confident that ... I will not need political pressure to take a stand for their best interests. I will not support the Hales Lake site and oppose taxpayer money being wasted for a study of this location when the citizens so overwhelmingly oppose it."