Review of Base Realignment Study of Fort Douglas, Utah

A review was made of the Army's decision to close Fort Douglas, Utah, and to reassign the area support mission for Army Reserve units from that installation to Fort Carson, Colorado. Currently, the primary mission of Fort Douglas is to support assigned and tenant units and Army Reserve units in Utah, Montana, and Idaho. The Army estimated that the proposed action to close Fort Douglas would result in one-time costs of $2.56 million and annual recurring savings of $792,000.

Review of the Army's estimate disclosed certain errors, omissions, and questionable procedures which affected the estimated one-time costs and recurring savings. GAO estimated the one-time costs at $2.65 million and the annual savings at $580,000. This estimate did not include an estimated $400,000 in annual recurring costs to the Government for maintaining Fort Douglas as a registered National Historic Landmark if no other agency puts the property to some beneficial use. The Army's study recognizes several disadvantages of the proposed realinement; the major disadvantage in the opinion of GAO is the probable deterioration of support to Army Reserve units in Idaho, Montana, and Utah. Army officials agreed that support to the Reserves may suffer, and stated that they are considering the assignment of maintenance specialist positions to area maintenance support activities in these States rather than planning to transfer all of these positions to Fort Carson. Such a plan could minimize the negative impact on support to the Reserves and possibly reduce the one-time costs for the realinement.