YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — After more than 37 years of publication, Yokota Air Base’s Fuji Flyer prints its final edition on Friday.

The departure of the Fuji Flyer follows an Air Force-wide directive designed to cut costs and provide command information in a timelier manner.

Not having to spend 50 to 60 hours a week putting together the paper will allow the staff to focus on getting the news out to a wider audience faster and much more effectively, said Staff Sgt. Ruth Curfman, the paper’s editor.

After Friday, the paper can be read online at www.yokota.af.mil.

Guam meeting to address environmentThe first of many “partnering sessions” will be held next week to discuss how a proposed large-scale military buildup is going to affect Guam’s environment.

This is the second step of a three-year process to create an Environmental Impact Statement that will tackle issues such as housing, operations and support infrastructure stemming from the U.S.-Japan realignment plan to move 8,000 U.S. Marines and their families from Okinawa to Guam. The EIS also will look at enlarging the Apra Harbor seaport and placing a U.S. Army ballistic missile defense task force on the island.

The first step of the process was scoping, where the public was invited to add input into what the EIS would study, according to the Joint Guam Program Office, a special agency charged with overseeing the relocation process. Comments taken from the April scoping meeting still are being summarized, according to a JGPO news release.

Next week’s meetings will include Guam and Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands environmental agencies, Division of Aquatic & Wildlife Resources, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Navy and Air Force, the release said. Representatives will meet together Monday and Tuesday at the Top O’ the Mar, Nimitz Hill, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Migrated