Guam Meetings on the Military Buildup

Meetings on Guam move set
Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, February 10, 2008

The Joint Guam Program Office will begin meetings this month to collect data needed to create an environmental impact statement involving the planned move of 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam.

The meetings were planned with the help of the governors of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, local chambers of commerce and other community members, according to the program office’s spokeswoman, Annette Donner. The meeting will not be open to the public, she said.

Participants will discuss how the increased military presence could affect education, health-care services, employment, property values, crime, cost-of-living issues and other socioeconomic issues, according to a news release from the project office.

The data gathered will be included in a draft version of the environmental impact statement, which will be available in early 2009. Public hearings will be held for community input before the final report is released in 2010.