PORT CLINTON, Ohio — Members of the Ohio Army National Ground broke ground Monday for a new facility at Camp Perry in Port Clinton.
By December of next year, there will be a new 60,000-square-foot readiness center that will help train soldiers and will house three of its infantry units.
"It represents quite frankly, the future for us," John Harris, Adjutant General of Ohio said. "It'll be a modern facility, state-of-the-art that takes us into the future."
The future is what the new center will be all about as it will be helping the Camp Perry Joint Training Center grow.
"When we bring young applicants and who want to join the military, they're interested in technology," Harris said. "They want to see state-of-the-art facilities, they want to see things that are progressive and leading edge. This is what this readiness center gives us the ability to do."
The new center will be built on the south side of the Camp Perry Joint Training Center, which Port Clinton Mayor Michael Snider said is an important part of the community.
"Camp Perry has been around since the early 1900s and has been an integral part of the local economy, and the local readiness and the national readiness for our nation," Snider said.
Harris said this new facility will help with recruiting in the Port Clinton area.
"We love recruiting in this area because the people that we recruit, they come, they stay, they're dedicated, they're hard working," Harris said. "They love serving their community, which is a great thing about the National Guard."
With the addition of the readiness center, it helps trainees and recruits get ready to help their nation.
"We find the National Guard responding more and more often to disasters. Not only here in our own state, but supporting other states," Harris said. "This will be a fantastic base to ready our people to equip them to go forth and do anything that the governor calls us to do."