The prospect of relocating from San Antonio — where Brooks City-Base is to close in 2011 and jettison military research jobs — to the Dayton area poses plenty of questions for employees at the Texas installation, formerly known as Brooks Air Force Base.

Do you trade a climate of Texas heat for four seasons? Pull your children out of school in the San Antonio area? Leave family behind? Depart from San Antonio — a city of nearly 1.3 million with a 60 percent Hispanic population — for Dayton, a city of about 150,000 with a Hispanic population of 1.5 percent?

If anything, San Antonio may be a more affordable housing market than the Dayton area. Recent statistical estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau put the median value of an owner-occupied San Antonio dwelling at $68,800, compared with $83,200 in the Miami Valley.

Military and civilian employees at Brooks met with a variety of Dayton-area education, business and local government leaders at the base Sept. 24 in a Dayton Development Coalition-organized "meet the community" event.

"It was the first time we'd ever done it," said Maureen Patterson, a vice president of the public-private coalition.

The coalition will examine the responses of the employees who visited the event, and those who traveled from Dayton to make it possible, before consulting with the Air Force on how and when a follow-up event could be done, Patterson said.

Nancy Morales, a program management analyst with Brooks' 311th Human Services Wing, said she was surprised to see representatives of home builders, universities and even organizations with information about employment prospects for spouses of Brooks employees who may choose to relocate.

But, Morales still isn't inclined to move to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base when thousands of jobs transfer from Brooks to Dayton in 2010 and 2011 as part of the nation's base realignment and closure (BRAC) process. Although her husband, Tim, is interested in making the move, Nancy Morales said she has lived all her life in San Antonio and doesn't want to leave her relatives behind.

"That's going to be a real hard decision," Morales said. "Just living somewhere else ... we're so used to the connections and the church and the community stuff, it's going to be very hard."

Besides, she noted, the same 2005 BRAC decisions that will close Brooks City-Base and give Wright-Patterson a net gain of 1,100 research and related jobs from multiple bases will also bring 9,000 additional jobs to the Army's Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

"With all the opportunities that are going to open up at Fort Sam, I'm not worried," Morales said.

Others are considering whether to move to the Miami Valley, however.

"I'm kind of toying with the idea," said Elisa Wilcox, a contractor who provides marketing and communications services to the 311th Human Services Wing. Wilcox is originally from Santa Fe, N.M., and said she misses living in an area with four seasons, rather than the almost year-round Texas heat.

Brooks could be a major contributor among bases scheduled to close and lose their research jobs to Wright-Patterson by Sept. 15, 2011. Historically, though, no more than 10 percent to 15 percent of civilian employees with a choice about moving have chosen to follow their BRAC-relocated jobs to new locations.

A follow-up trip to San Antonio is a possibility as the coalition tries to help ensure the success of the jobs transfer to Wright-Patterson, Patterson said. But there are no plans yet for that or journeys to other locations that will send jobs to Wright-Patterson, including Mesa, Ariz.; Pensacola, Fla.; Rome, N.Y., or Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.

Officials of the Dayton Development Coalition, which is supported by member businesses and local governments, said they expected the San Antonio trip and events to cost about $15,000. Attendees, or their organizations, bore expenses estimated at between $700 and $1,000 for air fare, lodging, transportation and meals.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.

com.