The Chronicle News 6-17-09

Louden, Robertson continue to
speak out against PCMS expansion

By David J. Santistevan Jr.
The Chronicle –News

How much land does the Army really want to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site (PCMS)? Seven million acres, 6.5 million acres over a 15 to 20 year period according to a 23,000 page document the army turned over about a year ago. This was just one of the topics covered by Mack Louden, Not One More Acre, and Lon Robertson, Piñon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, (PCEOC) at Tuesday’s weekly Kiwanis luncheon.

The Army already owns 245,000 acres of land east of Trinidad at the PCMS which it uses for large scale brigade
machine combat maneuvers and exercises to train troops, including tank and armored vehicle training.

For the last three years the Army has wanted to expand at PCMS. The Army has been eyeballing close to another 500,000 acres. This may be phase one in the ultimate goal of 7 million acres. “We are going to die a slow death in Southeastern Colorado if the army gains anymore land.” Louden explained. “We (Trinidad) need to think about Pueblo. Pueblo needs to think about us. We need to think about La Junta and La Junta about us. Together we need to look out for each other and help one another out regionally in Southeast Colorado.” Louden also discussed how important agriculture is in the region and how it has always been a stable part of our local economy through good and bad times and how agriculture will be here for many years to come. Louden added, “A short term gain may not be good for the region in the long run. This started out at Piñon Canyon and it could grow to expanding throughout the region, so we need to be thinking what can we do to keep this region alive.”

Louden talked about the federal lawsuit in court right now, saying $140 million the army wants to spend to build infrastructure could give them an opening to acquire more land. What is the army building? The Honorable Judge Dennis Maes, who is hearing the case agrees with the opposition that landowners need at least two weeks notice before the army starts to build any infrastructure out at the PCMS. So far nothing has been built. Two weeks ago Maes did ask the army if they had built anything out at PCMS, and the Army said no. Maes then
replied, “Make sure you don’t build anything out there.” Congressman John Salazar and Congresswomen Betsy Markey have stated that they will not give the army anymore funds for expansion in southeastern Colorado.

Both Louden and Lon Roberson (PCEOC) thanked Loretta Kennedy a representative from Rep. Salazar’s office who was in attendance at the luncheon. Robertson also spoke to the interested crowd about all of the broken promises including how the local economy was to benefit from the army coming to town and how the community still have not seem any of this.

Robertson mentioned a local rancher who lost his ranch the fist time around and said, “They (the army) has ways of making you a willing seller. This is so much bigger than a few ranchers concerned about this issue, it is so much bigger than that. We as Americans should be concerned about things like this happening in our country, things that can change our lives.” Roberson said, “Different groups that don’t usually see eye to eye on different issues agree on this one, that expansion at PCMS is not the right thing for our region.” The opposition has gained strong bipartisan support at the state, local, and federal levels. Over the past two years there have been two separate bills (HB 1096 and HB 1317) passed and signed into law.

Robertson added, “We would like to thank our local commissioners, local residents, Wes McKinley, Sal Pace, Ken Kester, Rep. Markey, Rep. Salazar, for helping put road blocks in front of the military’s ill-conceived plan to takeover almost 7 million acres of Southeastern Colorado. The question of why the army wants or even needs to expand has been asked many times over the past three years, and the army never has really answered that question. “We want our troops trained, and we want everyone to know that we believe in a strong military, but we need to have a strong nation, which is founded on being able to process our own food and being self sufficient.”

Robertson added, “We would like to thank the county for all of its support and for keeping this issue in the forefront. We can win this fight but we have a lot of fighting in front of us.”