Ravenna camp misses out as potential defense site

RAVENNA — The U.S. Department of Defense has chosen Fort Drum in northern New York over Camp James A. Garfield in Ravenna as the site of the East Coast Missile Defense site if the agency chooses to build it.

The site is to be designed to protect the East Coast from ballistic missile attacks.

The project would have created 2,300 construction jobs and once operational would have directly employed 850 with an additional 340 indirect workers.

U.S. Sens. Rob Portman, a Cincinnati-area Republican, and Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, both pushed for the Ravenna site. They expressed disappointment in the DOD’s decision in their respective news releases.