| Communities on edge over Guernsey plans (Platte
and Goshen Counties, for now)
(Note: This is about property rights and land acquisition to feed the ever-insatiable federal appetite.)
August 7, 2006
By The Associated Press To submit a Letter to the Editor: speakup@billingsgazette.com
Cheyenne, Wyoming - A multimillion dollar expansion of Camp Guernsey over the next two decades will bring change to Platte and Goshen counties, officials say. Major Gen. Ed Wright, adjutant general for Wyoming, said plans call for turning the National Guard base into a mobilization site that can train visiting military units as well as Wyoming troops. Camp Guernsey already handles the overflow from some larger training sites, Wright said. He said traditional training sites such as Ft. Carson, Colorado, are running out of room to train deploying units while the number of available training sites has fallen with closure of military installations around the country. As one of only a few with room to grow, few restrictions and varied terrain, Camp Guernsey is poised to expand into a major military hub, officials say. Last month, the camp acquired the 22,000-acre Gray Rocks Ranch, on the southwest corner of its existing South Training area. Colonel Steve Mount, garrison commander at Camp Guernsey, said space is one of the advantages the camp has over other bases. Camp Guernsey is set to break ground on its Joint Urban Training and Experimentation Center within the next year. It will be one of about 10 such centers in the country where the U.S. Department of Defense plans to test robots for possible use in war. Mount said the experimentation center could become a magnet for high-tech industry. The center also could be used for urban warfare training. Wright said the center could give Wyoming troops training in urban combat techniques before they head overseas to fight. "Wouldn't it be so much better if you already trained on that for months and months in your home state?" he said. Camp Guernsey has logged about 75,000 man-days of training so far this year and expects to top 100,000 by year's end. A man-day is one person training for one day. Wright said he hopes to increase that number to 450,000 man-days of training within the next 15 years. But in order to draw larger military units for training, Wright said, it is important to improve the camp's runway. He said the National Guard will try to secure money for that purpose. Most large units travel in C-17 airplanes, but Wright said the runway at Camp Guernsey cannot handle them. "If they can't land where the training area is, they'll just go somewhere else to train," he said. Leonard Scoleri is president and chief executive of Oregon Trail Bank and a member of the Guernsey economic development corporation. While some people in the town want to see it remain small, he said the business community is ready for expansion. "I think by and large, the community wants it and would be willing to do anything they could to help bring it in and work with it," Scoleri said. "It'd be silly not to want growth in small-town America." The Wyoming Center for Business and Economic Analysis prepared a study last year that concluded expanding Camp Guernsey "will result in positive economic and fiscal impacts in Wyoming's Platte and Goshen counties." The study stated that during the expansion period, the region would see $381 million of additional personal income. During 2004, the total personal income for the region was $554 million, the study reported.
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/08/07/news/wyoming/35-edge.txt
Related reading:
Camp Guernsey plans expansion - Platte, Goshen Counties Impacted
August 9, 2006
Wyoming Briefs / No author provided at originating website address/URL. To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@casperstartribune.net
He said traditional training sites such as Ft. Carson, Colorado, are
running out of room to train deploying units while the number of
available training sites has fallen with closure of military
installations around the country.
Copyright 2006, Jackson Hole Star-Tribune. |