POTRERO, Calif. — A proposal by security contractor Blackwater has divided residents of this sleepy mountain village into two camps: those who welcome the company’s plans to build a firing range here and critics who want to keep it out of town.
The issue has become so controversial that voters today are set to consider removing from office five members of the advisory planning board that endorsed Blackwater’s plans.
Blackwater Worldwide wants to turn an 800-acre former chicken farm into a training camp for law enforcement officers. But opposition to the plan intensified in September, after Blackwater guards were investigated in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad.
“This type of company — is this what America represents?” said Carl Meyer, a former planning board member who is running as an alternate candidate. “With all the news that’s come out about them, most people wouldn’t want them in their backyards.”
