No sense of unity or urgency...

The state, in the person of Gov. M. Jodi Rell, and the U.S. Navy, in the person of Deputy Secretary of Installations & Facilities Wayne Arny, held their first discussion about the Groton submarine base yesterday - a 45 minute video conference call.

The end result - no commitment from either side on this plan to have the state borrow money for infrastructure improvements - in terms of piers - with the Navy leasing them from the state. In fact, a new wrinkle popped up when the navy advised the state that currently such an arrangment isn't possible unless there is federal legislation enacted allowing for it to happen.

Maybe if someone had asked about that sooner we could have been already working on that. After all, this idea has been kicking around for more than a year now...but we are only now getting to a point where people are actually talking to each other.

What's missing is that sense of urgency that we witnessed back in the 2005 base closing process. And I don't get the sense that the same sense of unity is quite up to that level either.