(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is joining with other lawmakers from Iowa and Illinois in seeking answers from the Secretary of the Army about future plans for the Rock Island Arsenal. Grassley says he’s hearing reports that several hundred jobs may soon be eliminated from the second largest employer in the Quad Cities, behind only John Deere. “I do not have an answer yet,” Grassley says. “In fact, since we have been slow at getting answers, we resubmitted almost the same letter again, making clear that they didn’t answer our questions and we need answers.” Grassley’s latest letter to Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll was dated Monday, while the original letter was sent April 4th.

The Arsenal, located on a large Mississippi River island between Davenport, Iowa and Rock Island, Illinois, is the only active U-S Army foundry. It makes everything from artillery and aircraft weapons systems to grenade launchers and howitzer canons.”We’ve been hearing rumors that government facilities for manufacturing some war material may be shut down,” Grassley says, “and I want to make clear that this Rock Island Arsenal and there’s other facilities, other places in the country that we need as backup.”

Rock Island Arsenal (Army Corps of Engineers photo)

The Arsenal employs some 250 military personnel and about six-thousand civilians.  “We depend so much on the private sector,” Grassley says, “and we should depend on the private sector, but just in case the private sector can’t meet our needs for war material, we’ve got government-run facilities that can fill in the void.”

An initial report indicated about 100 personnel would be let get with the shutdown of a data center, but Grassley say new reports indicate another 150 positions would be eliminated at the Arsenal’s headquarters along with 400 more positions across the facility.