A day after the worst mass shooting ever to occur on a U.S. military base, the Fort Lee community carried on and in silence honored the victims at Fort Hood, Texas. “We are shocked, horrified by something very sad that has happened to members of our family,“ said Lt. Col. Joseph Gibilisco, the family life chaplain at Fort Lee. “We are grieving. I think that everyone of us needs to pray for the families of those who have lost a soldier.“

Virginia statements on the shootings at Fort Hood:
“I am truly saddened to hear of the tragic shooting at Fort Hood, home to thousands of our nation’s active-duty military and their families. My heart goes out to the military community at Fort Hood and the families of the victims. Until we learn the full scope of the events, I will continue to monitor the situation closely.“

Two national groups have weighed in on the contentious question of a new hotel at Fort Lee. The National Restaurant Association and the American Hotel and Lodging Association have written a letter expressing dismay that “a hotel of this magnitude will usurp business from local lodging and restaurant businesses which have spent years investing in the local community . . . .“

The Tri-Cities area’s hospitality industry is receiving significant support in their campaign against an Army plan to build a 1,000-room hotel at Fort Lee. On Monday, the National Restaurant Association and the American Hotel and Lodging Association sent a joint letter to key members of the House Armed Services Committee and its Military Personnel Subcommittee asking them to reject the proposed $114 million project.

In spite of a growing military presence and increasing lodging demand for servicemen and servicewomen in the Fort Lee area, the federal per-diem rates for lodging and meals here are the lowest in the state. The rates vary in the Greater Richmond area, with the per diem for lodging being as much as $55 more in Richmond than in some localities in the Tri-Cities.

FORT LEE—When Staff Sgt. Ziomara Cruz and her family moved to Fort Lee three years ago, they couldn’t find a Spanish church service nearby. Every Sunday, she and her husband, Jose, and their two children drove about 30 minutes outside Fort Lee to a Hispanic Pentecostal congregation. The Cruzes found other Hispanic families at Fort Lee who also wished they had a closer religious service in Spanish. So they requested one on post.

PETERSBURG—When members of the Tri-Cities hospitality industry learned about Fort Lee’s plan to build a mega-hotel, they reached out to one another. The official announcement of the $114 million project—a 1,000-room, 15-story building on 26 acres on base—came as such a shock to some business leaders that they quickly organized to contest the project. If built, some said, the hotel could have negative effects on their businesses, especially those that strongly count on Fort Lee’s patronage.

The public-comment period ends Wednesday for the environmental assessment of a proposed 1,000-room hotel at Fort Lee. The U.S. Army has denied a petition from local businesses and members of Congress requesting additional time to review the $114 million project. Area businesses and community leaders have expressed concern about the impact the 15-story hotel would have on area hotels. Those hotels hoped to gain business from the growth at Fort Lee resulting from the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission process.

If a proposed 15-story hotel is approved and built at Fort Lee, the installation would be home to the largest single lodging facility at an Army base and the biggest in Virginia. The 1,000-room complex, planned for 26 acres next to the Army Logistics University, would also be the first new lodging construction at any Army installation in the U.S. in years, officials said.

Size: An Army facility with 900 rooms and 100 suites. At 15 stories, the lodge would be about 155 feet tall, about three times taller than any other building on the base. Existing buildings on the installation do not exceed five stories.
  Amenities: A lobby and registration area, a restaurant, meeting rooms, study rooms, guest storage, fitness areas, administrative offices, guest laundries and in-house laundry.

U.S. Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-4th, and Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb sent a letter this week to Secretary of the Army Pete Geren to convey concerns of Tri-Cities businesses about the proposed construction of a 1,000-room hotel on the post. The letter asks that Geren consider a request by the Greater Tri-Cities Hospitality Coalition to extend a public comment period on the project for 120 days. This month, Fort Lee approved a 30-day extension, but the coalition had requested 120 days to review the proposed project.

The Virginia National Guard is closing its Dove Street Armory in Richmond because of state budget cuts. The move means about 375 soldiers will report to other Guard facilities in the area for their one-weekend-a-month duty assignments, said Virginia National Guard Maj. Cotton Puryear. The closing, along with the shutdown of the Guard’s Roanoke armory, will save $115,000 a year.

Amid pressure from area businesses and local governments, Fort Lee has agreed to a 30-day extension of the public comment period on a proposal to build a 1,000-room hotel on the base. The period, which was to end Monday, will now extend until Oct. 7. Col. Mike Morrow, Fort Lee’s garrison commander, also has invited government officials from surrounding localities and members of the Greater Tri-Cities Hospitality Coalition to a private meeting this evening to address their concerns about the project. Those localities are the cities of Petersburg, Colonial Heights and Hopewell, along with the counties of Dinwiddie, Prince George and Chesterfield.

When the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum completes its relocation from Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland to Fort Lee in 2011, the Tri-Cities area will be home to one of the largest military museum complexes in the country. The museum, which holds a large collection of historic military tanks, artillery and other weapons, will join the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum and the U.S. Army Women’s Museum on the base.

FORT LEE—Motorists along state Route 36 just outside Fort Lee slowed down yesterday morning to take a peek at the soldiers in full gear guarding the main gate. About a dozen protesters held posters and chanted, “No more hate! No more hate!“ The base’s law enforcement made sure the demonstrators stayed calm and outside Fort Lee’s perimeters.