DENVER—Republican congressman Mike Coffman is warning that barring the Army from expanding a southeast Colorado training site could undercut the future of Fort Carson and hurt the southern Colorado economy.
Coffman told The Denver Post in Monday’s editions that hemming in the Pinon Canyon training site could make the Army rethink how many troops to add to Fort Carson.
The Army says it needs to expand the 370-square-mile site to about 525 square miles to accommodate new weapons, tactics and troops from Fort Carson.
Opponents question whether the Army needs more space. They say expanding the site would take too much land out of agricultural production.
Democratic U.S. Reps. John Salazar and Betsy Markey have said they want to introduce legislation to bar expansion at Pinon Canyon.
Coffman called that a “deal-killer” because the Army would have to look elsewhere.
“Colorado completely takes the Army for granted, thinking that we don’t need to make any sacrifices and that the Army is always going to be here. That is absolutely not going to be the case,” he said.
The Army hasn’t publicly suggested it would reduce the size of Fort Carson without expanding Pinon Canyon, but Coffman said it would jeopardize the military’s plan to put one of three new brigades at the Colorado Springs post.
A brigade is about 1,900 troops.
“If they don’t do all three (brigades), which is likely, Colorado is not in the hunt,” he said.
Coffman represents the south Denver suburbs, and Salazar, whose district includes some of the Pinon Canyon area, suggested Coffman’s opinion might be different if his constituents were affected directly.
“Maybe what we should do is have Rep. Coffman condemn buildings in Aurora (in the Denver suburbs) because that’s what we’re fighting in Iraq, we’re fighting urban warfare,” Salazar said. “But I’m sure the people in his district wouldn’t want that to happen.”
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Information from: The Denver Post,
