Nearly 70 people gathered at the Sage Brush Event Center in east Kimball on Wednesday night to hear a two part meeting hosted by the Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce. The second half of the meeting was about the possible formation of a Chamber of Commerce here in Kimball County, and was largely interrupted by the severe weather in the area at the time. However the first half featured representatives from the US Air Force and Northrup Grumman, the defense contractor charged with the roll-out of the Sentinel project.

While new information was scarce in the meeting, the representatives did clarify many facts about the project and the time line.

For the Air Forces part, they assured the crowd that the project is moving forward. They are currently in the bid process to build two new buildings on F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne for the long-term support of the project. They will construct an Integrated Command Center and a training center on the base. They believe building will begin in the next six months.

The Air Force will modernize 150 launch facilities and dig new utility corridors that support updated, digital equipment as the existing program utilizes a largely analog system. Construction will ramp up between now and 2025 with the projects completion scheduled for the early 2030's.

The representative from Northrup Grumman spoke largely to the workforce hub that will come to Kimball County. He confirmed it would be a roughly 60 acre fenced facility with security guards, but residents will come and go as they please. He did not say where the facility will be exactly.

3000 contractors and sub-contractors will live in the workforce hub. Most of them will reside in 600 to 800 foot "apartments" inside modular 3-story dormitories. A small clinic, a cafeteria and a "cantina" or small grocery store will be part of the community as well.

While many of the workers will come here from the Gulf coast region, Northrup Grumman hopes to build 10% to 20% of the workforce from the local area, or the area within 100 miles of Kimball. Contractors and sub-contractors will work two 10 hour shifts each day and work on up to 35 launch facilities at a time.

In addition to the 3000 direct jobs, Northrup Grumman believes the project will create over 3000 in-direct jobs, meaning jobs created in and around the community due to the project.

Citizens were invited to call the US Air Force hotline at 307-773-3400 with any questions they may have.