Published:
June 15, 2006
10:21 am
Outreach office helps community
understand Depot
Ronica Shannon
Register News Writer
RICHMOND -- More than 40
citizens attended the first open house Wednesday for the new Blue Grass
Chemical Stockpile Outreach Office at 1000 Gibson Bay Dr. Suite 2.
The
event gave the community a chance to familiarize themselves with the
process of chemical weapon demilitarization that will eventually take
place at the Blue Grass Army Depot.
The office has been in
operation since March 13 and provides information about the chemical
weapons disposal program. The employees are responsible for providing
informational brochures, producing technical documents and reports
about the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant and
coordinates information about a variety of Blue Grass Chemical
Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant topics.
"People are always
surprised when they find out about our facility," said Jim Fritsche,
site project manager for the pilot plant." They're surprised to find
out what we do and the information that's available. If anyone was
familiar with the old facility (at 301 Highland Park Drive), there was
a lot of file cabinets and a lot of hard copies. More information is
now digital and we can give out the information on a disk. This makes
it a lot more user-friendly."
The outreach office contains
up-to-date information about all evaluations and tests that have been
done on the weapon stockpile at the depot.
"We also can go back
and pull up old evaluations from 1984, for example," Fritsche said.
"Some people just want general information and some are more concerned
about the GB nerve agent because it poses the greatest risk to the
community."
The office's new home also is in a better location, he said.
"Being
right off the bypass, it makes it easier for people to find," he said.
"The very first office we had was downtown, and here we have much more
parking."
Citizens should not feel intimidated by wanting to learn more about the
complex process of chemical demilitarization, he said.
"If
someone wants to come in and ask a question, all they have to do is
just walk in the door," he said. "You don't have to worry about not
knowing enough to ask the right questions. Our people here will help
you get anything you want."
The office was one of a series of
eight to open in and around chemical stockpile communities in the
mid-1990s. Assuming the program will continue to be funded by Congress,
government officials expect the office to continue to provide
information to the community at its new location on Commercial Drive
throughout the life of the chemical weapons destruction project.
For
more information about the project, call the outreach office at
626-8944 or send an e-mail to bgoutreach@bah.com, Monday through Friday
from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about the Assembled
Chemical Weapons Alternatives program, or ACWA, visit
www.pmacwa.army.mil.
Ronica Shannon can be reached at
rshannon@richmondregister.com or 623-1669, Ext. 234.