General Dynamics celebrates opening

Post by Ed Friedrich

Congressman Derek Kilmer, Kitsap County Commissioner Rob Gelder and Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent jokingly jockeyed during General Dynamics’ ribbon-cutting Tuesday evening over who gets to help the new aircraft carrier guys.

“We want to lay out the welcome mat and for you to keep us on your speed dial,” Kilmer said in the renovated second floor of the Dimension 4 building at Fifth and Pacific, soon to be the General Dynamics building when the new sign goes up.

“If there’s anything Congressman Kilmer can’t give you on a local basis, we can,” Lent followed.

Gelder said the county also wants to team with General Dynamics, the Virginia-based outfit that under-bid Vigor for the next five years of non-nuclear maintenance, repair and alterations of aircraft carriers home-ported in and visiting Bremerton and Everett.

The first job will be Everett-based USS Nimitz, which will arrive at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in January for a 16-month maintenance period. The company, which will employ about 200 people here, has put together a “dream team” from Virginia transplants, retired military and PSNS workers, and former Vigor employees, said senior general manager Jeff Brooks, who flew in from Norfolk for the event.

“One of the most important things about being here is how Congressman Kilmer and the community have embraced us,” Brooks said. “People call us by our first names already. We’re partners. We want that partnership to last.”