136th Year... and
still on the job!
Saturday December 2,
2004
|
|
||
|
|
136th Year... and
still on the job!
|
Saturday December 2,
2004
|
The local citizens group monitoring the plan to destroy weapons at the Pueblo Chemical Depot continued driving down a foggy road Wednesday night, watching the pavement directly ahead of them but not knowing if the road was even there a few miles ahead.
The Citizens Advisory Commission believed that there might have been some decision made on funding levels last month, but the Army officials who will make those decisions haven't done so yet. What's more, they didn't show up at Wednesday night's meeting of the commission in Pueblo.
Pueblo County Commissioner John Klomp, who chairs the CAC, sent an invitation Nov. 9 to Undersecretary of the Army Michael Wynne but was told that Wynne didn't get the letter at his Pentagon offices until Monday.
Bill Pehlivanian, of the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternative, the agency running the Pueblo demilitarization program, did come to the meeting but said no decisions have been made yet about funding levels for fiscal 2006.
There is enough money budgeted, he said, to "keep us working through 2005."
He said that money left over from 2004 along with $50 million Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., had restored, would keep work going next year.
The Army earlier this year issued a "stop-work" order on the design of the Pueblo plant charging that the plan that contractor Bechtel was developing was going to be too expensive. Bechtel and Army officials are working now on a redesign of the project to bring down the cost but the stop-work order isn't expected to be lifted until next September at the earliest.
There was a Defense Acquisition Board meeting last month at which time Klomp had expected some direction would be given as far as how much the Army was willing to spend but no decision was made, even though the board had an inspector general's report and the drafts of two other studies of the project in hand.
Ross Vincent, who represents the Sierra Club on the CAC, asked if the Army had considered what it's costing to delay the project. Another CAC member, Irene Kornelly, questioned if the government would be able to meet a treaty deadline to destroy the weapons.
Klomp did produce a copy of a letter that Kentucky's powerful Sen. Mitch McConnell had sent to Wynne raising the same question about the treaty deadline. The official deadline is 2007 but it could be extended to 2012. The Bluegrass Army Depot is installing a facility similar to Pueblo's.
McConnell charged in his letter that the program had been ignored by policymakers and has not been adequately funded.
Later in the meeting, Gary Anderson, of the ACWA office here, gave a presentation on what is being done now. He said that work would begin next year on fencing, utilities and other projects, short of the main weapons destruction building, since that is subject to redesign.
In other business, Lt. Col. John Becker, commander of the local base, said that there would be a public meeting from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. next Wednesday at the Pueblo County Conference Room, 1101 N. Santa Fe Ave., to display alternatives for the Defense Access Road project.
That project basically provides access to the depot from the north, connecting it to the DOT road that runs to the Transportation Technology Center Inc.
More important to the county, however, it will mean federal funds will be provided to help improve the roads through the Pueblo Memorial Airport Industrial Park and extend William White Boulevard to Colorado 47, providing a second access to the industrial park. Pueblo County Public Works Director Greg Severance said later that if all goes on schedule, work could begin on the project by this time next year.