The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.
Published February 11, 2015
Ft. Leonard Wood cuts may impact lake area finances
By Jeff Thompson
OSAGE BEACH - A proposed drastic personnel cut that could eliminate over 5,000
uniformed and civilian employees at Fort Leonard Wood (Ft. Wood) within five
years was addressed at City Hall Thursday night before the regular Board of
Aldermen meeting.
Joe Driskill - Leonard Wood Institute executive director - spoke to city
officials and residents attending his presentation.
Driskill said the reduction would have a definite negative economic impact at
the lake.
“I’m not here to scare anybody or to say the sky is falling but sometimes we
react too late,” Driskill said about the proposed downsizing of Ft. Wood
personnel.
Eighty percent of the Ft. Wood downsizing would be military personnel while 20
percent would be civilian, according to Driskill.
According to a federally-required Supplemental Programmatic Environmental
Assessment (SPEA), the army base would lose 5,400 people from its baseline
permanent population by 2020.
As of 2011, the baseline was set at 9,161 personnel.
A chart from Driskill showed over 20 military instillations stretching from the
East Coast to the West Coast scheduled for downsizing according to the SPEA in
states such as Maryland, California, New York, Colorado and Missouri.
The official title of the proposed personnel reductions is the Army 2020 Force
Structure Realignment.
A Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) done in 2013 called for a
downsizing of approximately 3,900 uniformed and civilian personnel but the 2014
SPEA added 1,500 to that number.
A PEA (and SPEA) study examines the environmental and socio-economic impacts to
the areas surrounding a military base due to federal job cuts and budget
downsizing.
Driskill urged anyone concerned about the possible draw-down of Ft. Wood
personnel to attend a public listening session March 2 at 5:30 p.m. at the
Nutter Fieldhouse at Ft. Wood.
“If (a comment) is after the fact, after the decision, it’ll be too late,”
Driskill said.
According to Sustainable Ozarks Partnership (SOP) - a non-profit group founded
in 2012 of which Driskill is also a member - US Army leaders from Washington,
D.C. will attend the “listening session” to gauge public reaction to the
potential downsizing and how that would affect the surrounding areas, including
the Lake of the Ozarks.
In addition, congressional, state and local elected officials will be giving
presentations (much like Driskill’s) in support of Ft. Wood, according to SOP.
Ft. Wood maintains its own recreational area at the lake - the FLW LORA - which
welcomes both active duty and retired military, National Guard and Reserves,
Department of Defense employees, family members and Ft. Wood contract employees.
LORA is located on the Grand Glaize Arm of the lake and offers cabins,
campgrounds, marina and a country store.
A November (2014) statement by the Army announced the availability of the
supplemental environmental assessment and that nearly all Army installations
will be affected in some way by the reductions, according to SOP.
For more information about the March “listening session” call SOP at
573-329-8502 or go online to
www.sustainableozarks.org.
All content is Copyright 2015 by Reporter Publishing, L.L.C. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited without written permission.