Military officials have negotiated contracts with local ranchers to conduct Jade Helm training on their property, according to Big Spring Mayor Larry McLellan.
However, he said residents will not be "forced out of their homes" to accommodate troops during the large-scale military exercise, scheduled to run July 15 through September 15.
McLellan had no details about the contracts supposedly offered to Big Spring homeowners. Military officials were not available to answer questions about how many ranchers were being displaced or inconvenienced due to Jade Helm, and how much they would receive in compensation.
Jade Helm operations planners previously confirmed training will only be conducted on private and public land with the permission of landowners or regional authorities.
One lifelong Big Spring resident told NewsWest 9 he would not accept any amount of money to surrender his home to troops.
"I support our troops, but when they're trying to take over our civilians, that ain't cool," he said. "[Those are] their homes. That's where they live."
McLellan told NewsWest 9 residents could anticipate "[hearing] more airplane traffic," but no other major changes.
"We might also see new faces around town and in the grocery stories... but I don't think we're going to have people kicked out of their homes or [military personnel] knocking on doors in the middle of the night," he said.
McLellan confirmed Jade Helm personnel would be purchasing groceries and other supplies locally. Operations planners and city officials calculated "wherever they're training could see as much as $150,000 increase in sales" during the two-month exercise...more
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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1 comment:
Get out your guns. Shoot any suspicious folks in your back yard.
'Course then they get to use your house for target practice with their 20 mm buzz saw....with you in it.
Oops, sorry for all of those negative thoughts. I got distracted for a moment by the reality of our current federal government.
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