Utah National Guard officials are holding public meetings to discuss how their Camp Williams facility impacts surrounding communities.
In 2012, a land use study funded by the Department of Defense and administered by Eagle Mountain identified current and potential areas of conflict between operations at Camp Williams and the surrounding cities. The meetings scheduled to take place this week are about giving the public a chance discuss the recommendations made by the land use study.
Fionnuala Kofoed is Eagle Mountain city recorder. She hopes the meetings will help educate the public about the base’s mission.
“And then also allowing the public to ask questions about Camp Williams, and just giving them that opportunity to have a one-on-one with the leaders there at Camp Williams,” she says.
Colonel Tyler B. Smith is the commander at Camp Williams. He says a positive relationship with surrounding communities is crucial.
“We want to be good neighbors,” he says. “We want to help them understand what our mission is. So they have buy-in and they have an understanding, so that when they get, you know, their windows rattled a little bit when we’re doing artillery, they understand what that is.”
Colonel Smith says that Camp Williams won’t be growing outward, but that ambitious projects are planned within the boundaries of the base. The first meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 4th, at Herriman City Hall. The second meeting will be held at Saratoga Springs City Hall on February 5th. Both meetings run from 6:00pm to 8:00pm and have the same format and content. Those wishing to attend are encouraged to go to whichever meeting is most convenient to them.