Thanks to all of you, elected officials are paying attention to the strong community opposition to the Holloman Air Force Base proposal to create a new Military Operations Area over the Gila to train F-16 pilots.<\/p>\n
As a result of your actions — signing petitions, writing letters, submitting comments and making phone calls to local elected officials, our New Mexico delegation, and to the Air Force — the Grant County Commission and Senator Martin Heinrich have made powerful statements against use of the Gila for F-16 training.<\/p>\n
Citing a long list of concerns associated with the F-16 training proposal, the Grant County Commission passed a\u00a0resolution<\/a>\u00a0stating that “unless the Air Force determines that no other alternative can fulfill this training mission, the Grant County Commission respectfully requests that the Air Force use the other proposed and existing areas for Holloman’s F-16 training.”<\/p>\n Senator Heinrich’s\u00a0op-ed<\/a>\u00a0for the\u00a0Silver City Daily Press\u00a0calls on the Air Force to not expand airspace over the Gila and surrounding areas: “[e]specially when there are other more appropriate overflight options, it makes no sense to threaten what makes the Gila so special and unnecessarily create hostility between the public and the military in New Mexico.”<\/p>\n Please send a thank you to your Grant County Commissioner and Senator Martin Heinrich for their efforts in defending the Gila region from a new Military Operations Area.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Grant County Commission<\/strong><\/p>\n District 1 – Gabriel Ramos<\/p>\n 575-574-0021;\u00a0gramos@grantcountynm.com<\/a><\/p>\n District 2 – Brett Kasten<\/p>\n 575-574-0022;\u00a0bakasten@grantcountynm.com<\/a><\/p>\n District 3 – Alicia Edwards<\/p>\n 575-654-4364;\u00a0aedwards@grantcountynm.com<\/a><\/p>\n District 4 – Billy Billings<\/p>\n 575-574-0092;\u00a0bbillings@grantcountynm.com<\/a><\/p>\n District 5 – Harry Browne<\/p>\n 575-654-4396;\u00a0hbrowne@grantcountynm.com<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n