Meeting of February 20, 2024

I've talked to Tammy about my what I wanted to do so I that's all I have to say and I appreciate you all thank you just make you go upstairs and start that paperwork okay okay thank you Martin Gary Bor good morning I was uh haven't seen anything lately in the p pioner and us are hting discussion how do we stand with the Grand Reserve well we're I can share that with you Keith K either way here's exactly where we stand with it right now until we move Animal Control you won't see a bulldozer going up through that facility to cut a road and we're hopefully that that's going to happen by the end of June 30th of this year and the rest of it's up to the developer and we can bounce him in here when he has what I'm going say the complete package done he doesn't want to do any more more I would almost say uh announcements without that but it's going to happen it's real uh there's 62 acres at that site and uh there there's there you will see a lot of

opportunities at that exit for the county to receive some Revenue in the future okay that fair enough Gary thank you very much you're welcome thank you uh presentation um Colonel Richie the commander of Fort Knox someone near and dear to our heart and Commander Richie wants to talk to us about their digital air to ground integration range update Commander it's all yours thanks sir yes sir how's everybody doing good awesome I know we we had a day off yesterday so it's take me a little bit to get warmed up all right so just want to just want to say hello to everyone I'm Colonel Chris Richie the Fort Knox Garrison Commander for those of you not not familiar with the term Garrison Commander I'm a little bit of Mayor a little bit of city city manager that's uh basically what it is for the Army uh for Fort Knox so I appreciate you judge Summers and the Fiscal Court for affording me the opportunity to talk with you about a range on post that is about to reopen more specifically I plan to highlight what the range is the types and expected frequency of associated training and why we believe it is prudent to address the fiscal cour as

part of helping promote awareness and understanding next slide I'll start by quickly going back eight decades a significant portion of Fort knox's Southeastern area which is in Southwestern Bullock County called the rolling Fort tank range came online in 1943 it was later renamed Yano range after Medal of Honor recipient Rodney JT Yano and has been one of the primary Fort Knox ranges throughout its existence next slide all manner of tank Bradley Fighting Vehicle Aviation mounted and dismounted training have regularly occurred at Yano range through the years and up until the armor School moved to Fort Moore Georgia the range was active for about 200 days a year following the armor school's departure in the 2010 2011 time frame the range was still in use for up to 150 days a year that is because there are few Rangers that offer what Yano does so units from across the Department of Defense came here to train it's a massive footprint and the Rolling Fork River Basin is flat which allows ground units to maintain long line of sight to targets back in 2010 which again was when the armor school was moving from Fort Knox the Army determined that newer reimagined and

more advanced technological ranges would be needed to improve the training our service members require in order to be best prepared for future conflicts and thus the digital airr integration Ranger dagger was born next slide Fort Bliss Texas and Fort Knox were chosen as the two sites for such a capability to be built at active army military reservations so why Fort Knox in particular there's several reasons Yano range already fit the profile for the type of range needed for a dagger so it cost less to construct a Fort Knox for perspective its improved footprint is about 3,650 Acres when you include the footprint of the impact area essentially where ordinance will or likely detonate upon impact we're talking about 99,900 Acres it's up to 5 kilm wide about three miles at some points and 8 kilm long about 5 miles having ya a range in a hot or inuse status causes minimal to know impacts to other Fort Knox ranges the same can't be said for ranges at most other Army installations where other adjacent ranges need to be closed we're

using this one the 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campell Kentucky by virtue of their mission is number three this is not a newly created

range with never before heard training activity emanating from the Southeastern area of Fort Knox far from it in fact it's still Yano range from 1943 albe it with significant upgrades to keep necessary Pace with change next slide so I've only been in Fort Knox since the last July but I have been made aware that the subject dagger has been communicated over the last several years in various forums news media Chamber of Commerce events Knox Regional development Alliance engagements compatible use plan open houses meetings with area elected officials and Civic Leaders with area planning and development officials and realtor associations and more so this really shouldn't be news or surprise to those living near Fort Knox that said as we all know there may still be some who say they were caught off guard when they hear Yano range training we're trying to avoid that as best we can this is where we kindly ask for your assistance in spreading the word and helping people understand especially in the event you receive questions from your constituents for added context when it comes to military training we don't do any more training than what's necessary due to a multitude of considerations

this includes being a good neighbor being fiscally responsible and making the best and prudent use of service members and units time time at the same time we as a nation have a solemn obligation to ensure our troops and units can maintain critical capabilities and Readiness during the daytime and nighttime hours while training occurs on Fort Knox virtually every day and even up to a 100 training events and single days at times we do put out notifications on occasions when it's believed training will be particularly louder than normal it's an imperfect science because it's hard to predict the atmospheric conditions which have a on noise levels but it is a step we take to provide a heads up that includes posting messages to Fort KNX Facebook and X formerly Twitter as well as emails to local judges and Executives Mayors and law enforcement agencies next slide so in closing I hope this presentation provided a helpful overview team Knox is very thankful for today's opportunity to speak with you and we recognize and appreciate how good community communication goes a long way toward awareness understanding and appreciation the soldiers families and

civilian employees of Fort Knox are privileged to call Central Kentucky home and that is in thanks in large part to the military friendly friendly and patriotic atmosphere we're fortunate and again thank you for this level of support I'd be glad to take questions I brought some pros with me and if you prefer to reach out later with questions that's great too thank you everybody thank you Commander any questions members of the Court no I think that was very detailed and I really appreciate the update and I do want to say thank you for your service and everything it takes to defend our nation so thank you all for for being here and it's I know you're kind of a partner with a large part of your map and blueprint being in buet County so thanks for the update thank you mol so we will have a little more noise and vibrations going a little picked up as far as train so when you look at the capability for the Army across the Eastern Seaboard you know really from the Mississippi East you know there's a there's a fair number of U Aviation Brigade units and some ground combat units we expect business to pick up