Area leaders meet to advocate for Fort Leonard Wood

About 200 community members, business leaders, local and regional government officials, state agencies and civic organizations from Laclede, Phelps, Pulaski and Texas counties attended the Sustainable Ozarks Partnership annual meeting recently at The Ark in Waynesville.

The focus was continuing those ties and various partnerships with Fort Leonard Wood and looking at how the SOP’s regional footprint is strengthening the installation and the region.

Thirteen speakers presented during the four-hour long meeting, each bringing a little something different to the table when it comes to supporting and partnering with the others on local, state and federal levels.

“We have to continue to think about what will be next,” said SOP Executive Director Dorsey Newcomb. “If we don’t have the relationships we have with Fort Leonard Wood, then we would not be, collectively, as effective as we need to be. So, we need to continue to foster that and engage. We need to continue to refine our strategic approach to what we’re doing to protecting, preserving Fort Leonard Wood, and growing it in different ways.

“There’s some reality out there about what the future of the Army looks like, as far as its structure and how it’s going to impact Fort Leonard Wood,” he said. “There’s no way to get around that, except to continue the strategies, strategies we have to mitigate that, to offset that, and hopefully what you saw here today is kind of the lineup that we have to pursue those objectives.”

Newcomb said the partnership with all entities involved must continue to defend and advocate for growth at Fort Leonard Wood.

“Everybody knows the impact it has,” he said. “I think that we are, you know, in a time right now, that’s very, very important. We’re a little bit vulnerable, but we can also make the most out of it, and that’s what we need to do. And so, I’m confident that our plan will allow us to do that. And then, of course, as we always want to do, we want to stay engaged nationally, to learn from other communities, what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, and then take our cue from them as well.”

SPEAKERS ADDRESS REGIONAL LEADERS

Missouri Commissioner of Education Dr. Karla Eslinger talked to the group about her personal experiences about what it’s like for children growing up attending several different schools across the country, and the world, from the largest to the smallest, and what that experience looks like to a young student trying to fit in at a new school. She advocates for each child to find success at all levels.

Other speakers included U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt; Mike DuBois, a state consultant of Kit Bond Strategies; Mike Dunbar and Steve Ehrhardt of Leonard Wood Institute and SOP board members; U.S. Rep. Mark Alford of the 4 ^th Congressional District; Joe Driskill and Rick Morris, both of civilian aide to the Secretary of the Army; Douglas Babb, deputy to the commanding general at Fort Leonard Wood; Jason Epley of Benchmark Planning, who gave a presentation on FLW Regional Military Installation Resiliency Review Project; Jeremy Hilton, South Central Regional liaison, Defense – State Liaison Office DOD, Military Community and Family Policy; and Missouri Military Advocate Harry Roberts.

LOCAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

SOP officials pointed out several recent stakeholder and collective accomplishments, including the recent announcement of the Army’s expansion of basic combat training at Fort Leonard Wood beginning in October.

Others include:

• The House and Senate fully appropriated $144 million in funding for the FLW Phase II Advanced Individual Training barracks project as requested in the fiscal year 2025 Army budget request.
• A total of $117 million in funding has been made available for FLW privatized housing improvements; $50 million appropriated by Congress and $67 million from the Army’s privatized housing partner’s reinvestment account.
• The SOP has continued its action plan, called Preserve and Protect Initial Entry Training at Fort Leonard Wood, simultaneously with its Offensive Strategies initiative and is working to identify opportunities to attract future additional military training and operational missions, functions and organizations that could be consolidated or realigned to FLW.
• The assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment approved a new 25-year lease between the Army and the cities of St. Robert and Waynesville for the joint and exclusive use areas of the airport on FLW. The structure of the new lease enabled the cities to continue operating the airport with $3 million in cost avoidance to the cities over the next 25 years.
• Community leaders recently met in the Pentagon with senior Army leaders to convey the ongoing regionwide and state support for FLW, service members and families.
• The DOD Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation awarded a regional grant for the conduct of a Military Installation Resilience Review. The Meramec Regional Planning Commission-led grant is aimed at evaluating community resilience planning necessary to address potential threats to FLW’s resilience.
• FLW, the city of St. Robert and the central Ozark Central Utility Services Alliance entered into two significant intergovernmental support agreements to provide street sweeping and fire extinguisher maintenance on FLW creating mutually beneficial efficiencies and cost saving.

Sustainable Ozarks Partnership is at 197 Replacement Ave., Fort Leonard Wood.

For more information, visit www.sustainableozarks.org , email info@sustainableozarks.org , or call 573-329-8502.

PHELPS COUNTY FOCUS

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