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Garden City armory closing its doors
Published 12/12/2009 in Local News
By SHAJIA AHMAD
The Kansas National Guard Armory in Garden City, one of 18 armories closing across the state, will be moving its operations to Dodge City.
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Brad Nading/Telegram Sgt. Jose D. Carrillo works on a computer in the office of the Garden City National Guard Armory Friday. The local armory, home of the A Battery, 161 Field Artillery, is on the list of Friday's announced closings.
The Kansas Adjutant General's Department announced on Friday the communities that will be shuttering armories, citing the necessity of long-term sustainment of armory operations. State officials first announced their intentions to close and consolidate several armories at the end of November, when Gov. Mark Parkinson's cut nearly $259 million from various state departments and agencies, including $156,662 from the KAG's 2010 fiscal year operating budget.
About 20 guardsmen who train at the facility located at the southern edge of Garden City, 405 S. Main St., and a full-time sergeant will be relocating to the Kansas National Guard Armory in Dodge City.
Training, equipment and other items needed to continue operations also will be relocated, said Sharon Watson, a public affairs director with the Adjutant General's office.
Watson said the building — built in 1958 — will be returned to the city of Garden City once it is emptied. A target date for completing the transfer has been set for February, she added.
Garden City Mayor Nancy Harness said she was informed of the closure on Friday and was "concerned" and "disappointed" by the news.
"When you look at the list (of closing armories), most of them are in considerably smaller communities than we're in," Harness said. "I don't know the particulars of why we were chosen, but you almost get the feeling that this is the first of several waves."
The following armory locations also will be closed: Atchison, Burlington, Chanute, Cherryvale, Council Grove, Fort Scott, Garnett, Goodland, Horton, Kingman, Larned, Phillipsburg, Russell, Sabetha, Salina East, Troy and Winfield. The Salina East building will remain open for use, but armory operations will be transferred, according to the KAG.
Kansas Adjutant General Maj. Tod M. Bunting said in a release Friday that his office did not believe the fiscal situation of the state is likely to improve in the near future and anticipated more armory closures.
Bunting said the closings were a result of the state's tight fiscal situation and careful deliberation over each site. The closings will be completed in most cases by the end of February.
"The tough decisions we are making today means jobs are saved," Bunting said. "We stayed as long as we could. This is a sign of the times."
KAG officials said the closures will address additional cuts necessary for next year's budget, as well, including no longer maintaining or inspecting the facilities, and that several factors were considered in its decision to shutter armories across the state: location and proximity to other armories, historical and projected demographic shifts in population, the conditions of current facilities and the need to maintain a National Guard presence in each of the seven homeland security regions to support domestic response operations.
Many of the facilities to be closed were built in the 1950s and designed for 100 to 150 soldiers, and many facilities have only 50 people training at each, the KAG added. Garden City is one of three armories located in southwest Kansas. Along with Dodge City, the other is in Liberal, which will remain open.
Operations will be consolidated at the remaining 38 armories. Equipment and personnel will be transferred to those locations through the middle of 2010. As a result, 54 percent of the Army National Guard soldiers are within 50 miles of their drill and training sites, up from 52 percent before the closing announcement.
Despite the consolidations, officials stressed that disaster support and other missions of the Kansas National Guard will not be affected by the latest closures. A total of 29 full-time Guard staff and 412 traditional or M-day Guard soldiers — those who train one weekend a month and two weeks a year — have been impacted across the state by the consolidations.
Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge Master Sgt. Merle Amrine, head of 12 armories in western Kansas including Garden City's facility, was not available for comment Friday.
Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jay Emler said armories are important not only because of their role in Guard training but because they house equipment used in natural disasters. And, he noted, they've often sheltered people in storms.
But, he said, budget problems have forced Kansas to set priorities.
"The public has been served well by those armories, but in the long run, the public is probably going to be served better by education than armories," said Emler, a Lindsborg Republican.
Kansas has closed 14 armories since 1982. Friday's announcement follows similar action taken in Virginia and Washington earlier this year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Found 1 comment(s)!
Guard Closings
As usual, the State is closing facilities in places other than Johnson County and Topeka. Heaven forbid they go without anything in those places. But, we need to continue to bow to them and let them suck the rest of the life out of us.
Posted by: Disappointed on 12/12/2009