December 15, 2016 – After a nine-month process consisting of extensive stakeholder engagement and thorough analysis of the regional economy, the Matrix Design Group/Hexad Analytics team has completed the “Community Impacts Associated with Army Personnel Reductions (CIAR) at Fort Riley Report.

” The Flint Hills Regional Council (FHRC) received a grant from the Department of Defense (DOD) Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA) to study the economic impacts of the reduction of 2,345 personnel between 2014 and 2017 on Fort Riley and the surrounding region. The study area consists of five counties and eight municipalities: Riley, Geary, Pottawatomie, Clay, and Dickinson counties; Chapman, Clay Center, Junction City, Manhattan, Ogden, Riley, Wakefield, and Wamego.

The analysis considers the impacts of these losses in isolation over a five-year period, independent of other changes in the economy, assuming the installation is fully manned. The analysis also simulated potential impacts if further personnel reductions were to occur at Fort Riley, though none are currently planned. The analysis estimates that the defense economy throughout the study area prior to the drawdown accounted for $4.5 billion annually – roughly 45% of the region’s total economy. The impact of the loss of 2,345 personnel and their families is impacting the regionally economy approximately $580 million through fiscal year (FY) 2019.

The report makes 11 recommendations for leveraging the economy of Fort Riley and the region to strengthen the area’s economy and improve its position to grow in the future. These recommendations include working together as a region and retaining soldiers separating from Fort Riley to expand the region’s workforce. Each jurisdiction in the study area is impacted differently, so the data collected through this analysis is broken down by jurisdiction.

The full report can be found at www.flinthillsCIAR.com and at the Flint Hills Regional Council website, www.flinthillsregion.org.