Fort Custer Training Center, in Augusta MI (off of I-94 between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek), remains on the short list of three possible sites under consideration for a new anti-ballistic missile interceptor facility. The Secretary of Defense is required by legislation to pick one of these three nominated sites by Spring of 2018. Whichever site 'wins' is effectively guaranteed some new well-paying jobs and ample construction employment for the foreseeable future. The other two sites are Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center in Ohio, and Fort Drum in New York.
Quote:
Competition for Missile base heating up
John McNeil | VWKZO
December 26, 2017
BATTLE CREEK/KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) -- Every member of the Michigan Congressional Delegation, even Justin Amash, has signed a letter to the Director of the Missile Defense Agency, pressing their support for locating an anti-ballistic missile base at Fort Custer. It follows passage of legislation by Congress requiring the Secretary of Defense to pick one of three nominated sites for the base by this spring. It also follows over four-billion in funding for new anti-ballistic missiles, which was included in the temporary budget deal signed by the President last week...
|
In other news, here's a nice nod to Kalamazoo's largely successful college promise program. Established in 2005, the Kalamazoo Promise is the first free college tuition program of its kind in the country, and one which many other states and cities around the country have since studied as a model for their own college programs:
Quote:
Can college 'promise' programs deliver?
Laura Perna, Edward J. Smith, Elaine W. Leigh
The Conversation, via The Associated Press
December 15, 2017
...Place-based scholarship programs are modeled after the Kalamazoo Promise, created in 2005, and include other relatively long-standing initiatives like the El Dorado Promise and the Pittsburgh Promise. The Kalamazoo Promise, in particular, has been shown to increase college participation and degree attainment. But just because Kalamazoo achieved these results doesn't mean other programs will. Unlike some other programs, the Kalamazoo Promise provides a generous financial award, allows students to use that award at many two-year and four-year colleges and universities and is designed to build a college-going culture that starts in kindergarten. Other programs may not have all those things...
|