FAIRFIELD - The delegation lobbying in Washington, D.C., to save Travis Air Force Base from the upcoming base closure round say the signs look good for the base.

These omens include ongoing plans to build 340 houses on the base, which would take the place of 1,555 older home and townhouses the base declared surplus last year.

A Travis Community Consortium delegation - which included Fairfield City Councilwoman Marilyn Farley, Solano County Supervisor Duane Kromm, Fairfield City Manager Kevin O'Rourke and Rio Vista City Manager Brad Baxter - are in Washington for two days of briefings and lobbying.

Later, the group met with Gov. Schwarzenegger's staff and consultants as well as with Rep. Mike Thompson and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

The 2005 Base Realignment And Closure Commission was on everyone's mind, but it was the one subject that Pentagon officials refused to talk about.

Instead, they laid out plans for Travis' future as if the BRAC did not exist.

The Pentagon is looking to contract with a developer to build the 340 new housing units at Travis and renovate 50 units as part of its housing privatization efforts, Farley said the group was told.

While the Air Force will continue to own the land, the building and maintenance of the new and renovated housing will be done by a private builder.

Any contract to build at Travis will also include building housing at McChord AFB, Wash., and Fairchild AFB, Wash., Farley said.

Bids will be solicited in September with the contract slated to be awarded in July 2006.

Combined with the recent increases in housing allowances to help military members get housing off base, the group was told the Pentagon no longer sees a housing problem at Travis.

"The feeling is that they have fixed that problem," Farley said.

The group did get the impression that Travis is a base in good standing with the Pentagon.

The lobbyist Schwarzenegger hired for BRAC described Travis as being in a good position to collect new missions from bases that would close because of the 2005 BRAC.

It helped that the Pentagon stated it is planning for $38 million in new construction on base and planning to bring the C-17 Globemaster to Travis in 2006 is proceeding ahead.

The big hurdle is to get all the communities around bases in this state to work together to keep as many California bases as possible from being closed, the group was told.

So far, the different bases' supporters are not picking at each other and the Consortium hopes that will continue after the list of proposed base closures comes out this spring.

Today, the group will visit more California Congressmembers such as Reps. Dan Lungren, Nancy Pelosi and George Miller.

They will lobby Pelosi to nominate a pro-California, pro-Air Force person to the BRAC Commission. Former Congressmember Vic Fazio was asked to be on the commission earlier this year, but he declined.