Fort Riley will be closing the Grant Ave. gate on Saturdays starting on December 12th.

John Seitz, Director of the Junction City Military Affairs Council shared that information with Junction City Post Thursday. He explained that it’s all driven on man power.

“They used to have 80 civilian guards that they could put on gates, and because of cuts in the budget, they’re down to 20,” said Seitz. “So that means you fill in that other 60 with soldiers. Well, we’ve got soldiers deployed, we’ve got soldiers getting ready to deploy, and training up for it, and so you just run out of bodies.”

The gate is already closed on Sundays and closing on Saturdays won’t be a big problem according to Seitz,”because you can still get in through the Trooper gate or through the Henry gate at the airfield.”

He also added that there is very little traffic that has utilized the Grant gate during the weekend anyways, “less than 200 vehicles a day.”

Local officials had concerns about the closure of the Grant gate on Saturdays in fear that it would have a negative economic impact on business’ located along Grant Avenue.