Beaufort's Military Enhancement Committee could soon have $217,000 in reserve, just in case it's needed.

Beaufort County Council's Military Affairs Committee on Monday recommended an ordinance amendment to appropriate the money as financial support for the Greater Beaufort Chamber of Commerce's all-volunteer committee, which is charged with protecting the area's military bases from an impending round of closures.

The ordinance requires three readings and a public hearing, and the process could be completed by the end of March.

If passed, the funds would stay in the county's account until "trouble is on the horizon and you've got to get the ox out of the ditch," Beaufort County Councilman W.R. "Skeet" Von Harten told Wes Jarmulowicz, the Military Enhancement Committee's chairman, at Monday's Military Affairs Committee meeting.

"If consultants become necessary, that's a high-ticket item," said Von Harten, who headed the Military Enhancement Committee during the last round of base closures.

So far, the committee hasn't sought help from hired consultants or lobbyists, choosing to run a "grass-roots" campaign instead, said Brad Samuel, the chairman of the committee's Military Values Subcommittee.

And while the committee is glad to have the support of the County Council and glad to have the money in reserve, Samuel said, only time will tell if it will be needed.

"We feel the community will come through," Samuel said of the committee's fund-raising efforts. "We don't feel the need to throw money at a professional lobbying group."

Another Department of Defense-mandated round of military base realignments and closures is set for 2005 to eliminate excess capacity and allow the military to operate more efficiently.

With nearly 25 percent of all bases nationwide expected to be affected, this round of closures will be larger than the last three combined.

An economic impact study performed by the Military Enhancement Committee and Georgia Southern University estimates that closing Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island and Naval Hospital Beaufort could cost the community $454 million annually, and that it would take between 10 and 17 years to recover.

Three years ago, the County Council agreed to make up to $250,000 available to protect the bases, $50,000 of which was appropriated last year. The county also holds $17,000 in a trust account.

County Administrator Gary Kubic said he recommended the amendment so the county would be "full prepared without any delay to have those funds appropriated when needed."

The Military Affairs Committee also got behind state Rep. Catherine Ceips' bill to authorize $25 million in state general obligation bonds to fund a revolving military loan account for the four areas of South Carolina threatened by base closures.

"We're positioned well to move it," said Ceips, a Beaufort Republican. "I just don't want to leave one stone unturned."

Jarmulowicz attended Monday's meeting to update the County Council on the base closure process and timeline, and to highlight the final criteria the Pentagon will use when judging bases.

The list of criteria, which was the same as the initial draft criteria published in December, was made final Thursday.

That the criteria list -- which ranks military value above other considerations like economic impact and community support -- didn't change is a sign that the secretary of defense "has a plan in mind," Jarmulowicz said following the meeting.

Military value, he said, will be and should be the driving force behind the base closure process, and the committee now awaits the secretary of defense's force structure, a 20-year plan describing where the military is going.

"I think we're poised well against (the secretary of defense's) vision of force structure for 2024," Jarmulowicz said.

During a 30-day comment period after the draft criteria were published, the executive committee of Gov. Mark Sanford's base closure task force requested that the ability of communities to support forces and missions be moved to be considered part of military value, rather than just a part of "other considerations," said retired Army Gen. Jim Shufelt, who sits on the executive committee along with representatives from the Columbia, Charleston and Sumter areas.

"I really wasn't expecting, and I don't think many people were expecting, the criteria to change," Shufelt said.

Congress has until March 15 to reject the criteria before the list takes effect. In May 2005, the defense secretary will publish a closure list for the president and the nine commission members he appoints and the president will make a final decision in September 2005.

"If he rejects them, the whole process will have been for nothing," Jarmulowicz said.