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.

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