Harris County Sheriff Mike Jolley, a retired Army veteran, shares Fort Benning's philosophy: Train as you fight.
"This would be a good thing for Harris County," Jolley said about Fort Benning's announcement Wednesday.
About 5,700 of Harris County land is being considered for military acquisition for training. It adjoins more than 17,000 acres in Talbot County also getting the military look-over as part of a study.
The Army determined it had a training land shortfall caused by changes in training missions, according to a letter Jolley received last December.
In January 2010, the Office of the Secretary of Defense authorized Fort Benning to study additional training land o fup to 82,800 acres. The counties already being studied include Marion, Webster, Chattahoochee and Stewart Counties in Georgia, as well as Russell County in Alabama.
Harris and Talbot Counties were not originally included in the study because of costly land values and a buffer program that aims to protect natural resources, such as the counties' timberland.
Fort Benning's Public Affairs Office reports that from the onset of the acquisition study, commerical timberland has caught the Army's eye for purchase.
According to Fort Benning's Garrison Commander, Col. Tom Macdonald, the study is being conducted as directed by the National Environmental Policy Act.
Jolley says he would expect the added population to stimulate the local economy, from mom-and-pop restaurants, to impacting schools--just one part of the 27 percent population boom he said statistical data indicates the area has experienced in the last 10 years.
"All that's positive. It's a tax base," Jolley said.
It has not yet been announced what kind of training would take place on which tracts of land.
"I don't think they're going to have tanks out on the roads," Jolley said. "I spent 20 years in the Army myself, so I have a good idea for what the Army will and won't do. They're not going to have Abrams tanks out on Highway 116 or Highway 315."
As for possible added noise if the training expansion launches, Jolley said some Harris County residents are already accustomed to noise from the quarry on one end of the county.
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