Lattes and Legislators Covers Missile Site March 6
NEWTON FALLS, Ohio – As the decision about where, and if, to build a new missile defense site continues its way through Washington, D.C., the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber will welcome the director of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance at its monthly Lattes and Legislators series.
Riki Ellison, executive director of the national organization, will speak March 6 at Roby Lee’s Restaurant and Banquet Center, 425 Ridge Road, about Camp James A. Garfield – previously named Camp Ravenna – and what will happen if it’s selected as a missile defense site. The breakfast will be held 7:30 to 9 a.m.
If selected from among the three finalist sites, work at Camp Garfield would require 2,000 construction workers over five years. Once completed, the missile defense site would eventually employ 850 scientists and engineers and attract defense contractors “in such a volume that it could change economic life as we know it throughout the Mahoning Valley,” the chamber said in a release.
“Having Riki in town is impactful and helps to continue the momentum that has been cultivated around Camp Garfield as a missile defense site contender,” said Vito Abruzzino, executive director of the chamber’s Eastern Ohio Military Affairs Commission. “We are hoping that he will interact with members of our community and carry a message back to his contacts and the White House that the missile defense site investment at Camp Garfield will be an economic boom for the Mahoning Valley.”
Camp Garfield is one of the three preferred sites to develop a continental-based missile defense system in the United States. Constructed in 1942, the base occupies 21,000 acres and is located in both Portage and Trumbull counties. The U.S. Department of Defense is in the process of conducting a feasibility study as to whether such a ground-based defense system is necessary.
Local and federal elected officials have been advocating for the missile site to be located at the camp since early 2018.
Registration for Lattes and Legislators is $10 per person and can be completed here.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
