Fort Drum economic impact rises following five-year decline

“This level of economic impact is as a result of the forethought planners put into establishing Fort Drum as the home of the 10th Mountain Division in the mid-eighties. Today, we in the north country are all one community,” said Col. Dean Harrison, Fort Drum’s Garrison Commander, in a statement. “We appreciate our neighbors and want to keep Fort Drum and the 10th Mountain Division as relevant decades into the future as we are now.”

The colonel’s statement said the post was committed to working with local partners for future planning.

“It’s an investment today that will ensure continued economic success,” Col. Harrison said.

Among the highlights of Fort Drum’s economic impact statement:

n The post has 15,110 soldiers and 15,455 family members, up from 15,069 soldiers and 15,229 family members the previous year. The number of civilian workers fell from 3,786 to 3,722.

n There are an additional 3,092 retirees from all branches of the military living in the region.

n Total payroll for soldiers and workers on post is $992,677,223, up from $979,566,710 the previous year.

n Federal impact aid to local schools was $37,962,859 in 2017, up 22 percent from $31,078,996 in the previous year.

n Since fiscal year 1988, Fort Drum’s direct impact was reported at $24.689 billion. It is the largest single-site employer in New York.

Scott A. Gray, chairman of the Jefferson County Board of Legislators, said the numbers should help the county’s sales tax figures.

“When we see numbers like that, we see we’re fairly solid going forward,” he said.

The report comes as federal officials push for new activity at the post, including the placement of a Security Forces Assistance Brigade on post, which has about 800 senior and noncommissioned officers. They are also calling for the military to name Fort Drum the preferred site for an East Coast missile defense site, which, if built, could bring more than 1,000 jobs.

“The outlook for Fort Drum continues to be positive,” Mr. Gray said. “Not only in its current state, but in its potential.”

In addition to tracking the indirect impact of the post, the FDRLO report also said the post generated an additional 5,622 jobs in the general regional economy, on top of the 18,832 military personnel and civilians employed on post.

“Those are jobs not on Fort Drum, but that exist off-post because of Fort Drum,” said David J. Zembiec, Deputy CEO of Jefferson County Economic Development, in a statement.

The top 5 occupations represented in the indirect job creation totals are office and administrative, education and training, health care practitioners, sales and health care support.

The combined 24,454 direct and indirect jobs represent about 22 percent of the employed population in the region, the study said. The FDRLO said 22,866 of the job holders live in Jefferson County, 1,104 in Lewis County, 232 in St. Lawrence and 252 outside the three counties.

The civilian advocacy organization for the post said their indirect impact calculation of $437.7 million came by determining different spending reported by the post and different multiplier effects in the region.

“In order to understand the full economic impact of that spending on the three-county region, you have to understand the additional economic activity that spending generates and the jobs that spending supports,” Mr. Zembiec said.

When combining the Army’s direct impact figure with the FDRLO’s calculation, the group said Fort Drum represented 11.6 percent of the region’s gross domestic product.