3 Jul 2007

US military in Guam denies it's blocking access to landowners' property

3:32 pm on 3 July 2007

The US military in Guam says it only ocassionally restricts acess to a local key roadway to remove unexploded ordinance from the Second World War.

Some Urunao and Ritidian landowners are concerned that the military is starting to block access to their property and general public access to Route 3.

An Urunao landowner, Artero Sablan, also says they are being kept in the dark about how their land is to feature in plans for the pending build-up with the relocation of 8,000 US Marines from Okinawa to Guam.

However, Captain Joel Stark, the Deputy Chief of Public Affairs at Andersen Air Force base, says the military is thorough in keeping the public informed about its plans.

"A lot of that is the Big Bad Wolf syndrome. There's not limited access right now to those roads. What you're hearing here is: he doesn't know what is coming in the future because he's either not attending the public scoping meetings or his patience has run out with how slowly these things move."

Captain Joel Stark