Ruthsburg is a town in Queen Anneps County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

It is over 300 years old

and home to the Thomas House, built around 1798. In November 2009 the town was chosen to host a
new Federal Foreign Affairs Security Training Center(FASTC).

The FASTC will bring up to 500 p ermanent jobs to the farming town.
No matter what the Government says about what will ha en at the new FASTC that is in talks
to be develo ed, the town citizens all have their sus icions about the intentions of the center,
questions that they feel are not being answered, and concerns about safety and their local
environment.
 There are similar facilities in Sykesville and Brunswick, GA and the residents in these
communities say that the centers have been considerate neighbors and they have never
ex
erienced the controversy and backlash they are now seeing in Queen Anne
s County.
The Foreign Affairs Security Training Center will:
v take u  2,000 acres of viable farm land
v cost anywhere from 150 million dollars to 500 million dollars, 70 million of which will
come from stimulus ackage funding
v consolidate 19 other training facilities into one
_n December 22, 2010 4 of the 5 town commissioners changed their votes from yes to no
because they found out that the center would be used for .50-caliber machine-gun training, 40
mm grenade launching and helico ter o erations. This is an accusation that the State Deartment
is denying.

The FASTC would also include ex losives training, firing ranges, and racetracks.

Neighbors in the area are standing u  against the center due to the nature of the weaons and
training that will be managed at the location stating that the noise would s ook their children and
horses and disru t their quiet life style. _thers are saying that they donpt want bombs going off in
their backyards.
According to Senator Barbara Mikulski, the FASTC is good for three reasons jobs, jobs, and more
jobsr.

Queen Anneps County has suffered a devastating unemp loyment rate and continues to see it rise.

Exp ected to bring in more than 400 p ermanent jobs to the area, the FASTC will also bring in
additional new p eop le to the area as transfers. The combined effect of the new jobs and
transfers will lead to economic benefits for local businesses.
ocal residents ,who are against the ro osal to build the FASTC ,state that one of many
concerns they have include how the training center will effect the local environment including
the Chesaeake Bay and Tuckahoe State Park. Some believe that there will be an extreme
amount of ollution to worry about and others are concerned about the noise and if it will drive
the local wildlife away.
_ver all, in my o inion, I believe that the ro osed site will have a ositive outcome for us all.
Although the lan does have its negative arts, it will eventually become an economy booster as
others have stated. Us small town Eastern Shore folks need something like this to bring
everyone s s irit s back u . How can a town with such a high unem loyment rate say no to jobs?
Wouldn t they want to be cleaning toilets or doing whatever they know how rather then
mooching off the Government and collecting unem loyment ayments?

In fact, when olled only 27 ercent of the residents of Ruthsburg thought that the ro osed lan
was not a good idea. Most of the negative Nancy s are robably small business owners and are
afraid of what could haen if the lans are finally set in stone and they begin the building
rocess. As they say, the one s who are against something are always the loudest.