War Games Training Center Proposed Near Venus

Editor's note: This is a corrected version of a story printed in the July 16 Highlands Today.

SEBRING - By 2010, if Seth Ellis gets his way, Venus will become known as a live-fire training center for the military, homeland security, local police, even foreign governments.

Ellis appeared Tuesday at the Highlands County Commission meeting, requesting expedited permitting for Eagle National Security Training Center, a 7,700-acre expanse near the Glades County border.

Ellis is the former president and CEO of ICx Digital Infrared Imaging, a subsidiary of ICx Technologies Inc. and a partner in Gator Mezzanine Funds, which loans money to mid-sized companies.

The Venus center would employ 250 people at the start, and up to 1,000 jobs eventually, said Ellis, who is from Lake County. He was presented to the commissioners by Lake Placid attorney Bert Harris Jr.

They were unsure at this time about how large a buffer zone is needed, but they plan a live-fire zone on 2,000 acres at the center of the property, Ellis said. This probably would include bullets, but not bombs, Ellis said.

"We won't be flying anything over," Ellis said. Eagle would build its own roads.

Two Army lieutenant generals are involved in the Eagle project, Ellis said, Paul Cerjan and Jerry Boykin, and Marine Gen. Dobie MacArthur.

The commissioners granted Ellis's request, but Commissioner Barbara Stewart pointed out that Eagle must go through a long permitting process, which could stop the project at any point.