Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is writing the Department of Defense to inform Army officials they can now feel free to move forward with the transfer of former Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant property to the Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge because county residents and officials have made their preferences clear, Hutchison Press Secretary Chris Paulitz said Wednesday.

County commissioners voted Tuesday not to support an industrial site on land that had previously been scheduled to join the refuge, and 80 percent of the people who spoke at a Monday public hearing also opposed the industrial site.

The land transfer was put on hold last summer after Ms. Hutchison wrote Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Joseph Whitaker and told him the community supported an industrial site on some of the Longhorn land.

Although industrial site proponents seemingly switched the land they want for the industrial site from land that has not been transferred to the Department of the Interior to land that has already been included in the refuge, Paulitz said the Senator doesn't know anything about the change in preference.

No one has asked Ms. Hutchison to take land out of the refuge for industrial development or any other proposal, he said, adding "If the community has a federal issue, the senator's door is always open."

One land industrial site proponent, Sam Moseley, said Monday night he and other supporters have always wanted land that has already been included in the refuge.