Coast Guard halts plan for training with live fire
By NANCY A. FISCHER
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
12/19/2006
The U.S. Coast Guard has announced that it will withdraw current plans for 34 live-fire training zones in the Great Lakes, including a zone which had been proposed in Western New York on Lake Ontario.
Under the proposal, the permanent zones would have been used two to three times a year for live-artillery training with high-powered weaponry. Boating traffic would have been restricted during the training, which had rankled charter captains, tourism-related business owners and anglers.
Three zones had been proposed for Lake Ontario, including a 33-square-mile training site between Youngstown and Wilson, about five miles offshore.
Lake Erie zones were proposed for the Cleveland area, but not off Buffalo.
The decision to withdraw current plans came Monday from U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in Cleveland, following an internal review, public meetings and comments from the public and elected officials.
Though the current proposal is dead, plans will be reworked, according to Rear Adm. John E. Crowley Jr., commander of the Ninth Coast Guard District.
Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport, applauded the decision, and said local concerns were brought to Coast Guard officials at a public meeting in Rochester on Oct. 30.
"We want to secure our coast in a way that preserves recreational activities like boating and fishing, and it is encouraging to know that the Coast Guard understands that and listened to the concerns of local citizens," Slaughter said. State Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, also had asked for reconsideration in establishing the training zones.
He told Coast Guard officials and the press, "I understand the need for the Coast Guard to be fully trained, but we have to ask the question - is the Youngstown-Olcott area, where the boating community is particularly active, the right place to be conducting live fire exercises with boat-mounted machine guns?"
Newfane Supervisor Timothy R. Horanburg said his town, which includes the port of Olcott, was close enough to be concerned about the proposal.
"I didn't like it and didn't see anything good about it," Horanburg said.
Wilson Supervisor Joseph A. Jastrzemski said he was "very pleased" that the plans had been withdrawn.
"At least they're listening and possibly they can come up with a better alternative," Jastrzemski said. "We do understand the need to be trained, but we don't know if they have to use live ammunition and why they chose [to locate a zone] in such a high tourism area."
Crowley said in a prepared statement that the Coast Guard remains committed to addressing concerns that training be safe.
e-mail: nfischer@buffnews.com
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