Army To Cut Base Services

The AP is reporting that Fort Carson, an Army base located in Colorado Springs, will be cutting approximately five million dollars in support services to soldiers and their dependents.

Areas the could be cut include recreation and food service operations, while the story reports a hiring freeze has been in effect since May for civilian employees.

The budget decreases come as funds are being diverted for the occupation of Iraq.

The Army faced a $520 million shortfall in its budget this year for operating posts around the world as it redirected garrison funds from all its installations toward the war. Expenses have been outpacing war funding from Congress.

In June, Congress included $720 million for installation operations in a $95 billion war supplemental bill, but Ingersoll said garrison managers have been advised to expect less money next year.

It was also reported officials are expecting more cuts when the new fiscal year begins, and that the base is set to host 26,000 more soldiers in the next two years, with construction being paid for by a separate part of the budget.

When the 2000 census was recorded, the base had a population over ten thousand.

Erin Rosa was born in Spain and raised in Colorado Springs. She is a freelance writer currently living in Denver. Rosa's work has been featured in a variety of news outlets including the Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, and the Rocky Mountain Chronicle, an alternative-weekly in Northern Colorado where she worked as a columnist covering the state legislature. Rosa has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her reporting on lobbying and woman's health issues. She was also tapped with a rare honorable mention award by the Newspaper Guild-CWA's David S. Barr Award in 2008--only the second such honor conferred in its nine-year history--for her investigative series covering the federal government's Supermax prison in the state. Rosa covers the labor community, corrections, immigration and government transparency matters. She can be reached at erosa@www.coloradoindependent.com.