Local elected officials in Junction City have met with the Garrison Commander at Fort Riley,

Colonel Andrew Cole.

Geary County Commission Chairman Larry Hicks said the purpose of the session was to ensure that the elected officials would take a message from the Post on their concerns to Washington D. C. during the annual Association of the United States Army convention in October. During those trips the city and county officials meet with Congressional elected officials and staffs on issues affecting the region.

Hicks stated, “The installation is most interested in their infrastructure issues that exist now and those that are going to be forthcoming, in addition to some of the support agreements that are taking place within the region. ” Hicks noted another topic dealt with a major recycling effort: “that Fort Riley is going to be undertaking in the course of the coming year.”

Hicks elaborated, by saying that sewage, water, electrical, and roads are expected to be a focus for the Post in the coming years. “In addition to making some overtures to the federal government about the importance of them identifying some sort of funding so they can meet those challenges and conditions.”

The commissioner said Cole mentioned approximately 23,000 people had trained at the installation over the course of the last one or two years, and that Fort Riley is being targeted as one of the premier training sites for the U.S. Army in the coming years. “He said that that bodes well for us. ”