Defense Communities 360 Headlines

WinnResidential Military Housing Services, the property management partner of Lend Lease (U.S.) Public Partnerships, has received the 2011 superior satisfaction company award for superior performance in a nationally recognized resident satisfaction program. WinnResidential received a superior rating with an overall score of 4.25 out of 5.0 in six primary categories — pre renewal, move in, work (service) order, move out, wait list, and point of service — from SatisFacts Insite® …

In Columbus, Ga., 55 to 65 percent of hotel guests are traveling on business related to the military, a fact that worries hoteliers that serve travelers visiting or working at Fort Benning. Due to planned reductions in spending, the post expects to train only 96,000 soldiers in the current fiscal year, down from 131,000 soldiers in FY 2011. The bulk of installation-related demand for hotels comes from training, graduation ceremonies and contract jobs, events that likely would shrink as the number of trainees declines, reports Hotel News Now. Fort Benning Army Lodge, an 860-room hotel scheduled to open on post later this year, also may hurt local hotels. Demand for lodging in Columbus fell 13 percent for the first three months of the year, while in other defense communities demand has been flat.

The Pentagon would be restricted to spending no more than $500,000 in a single year to move any one activity to the National Capital Region, according to language in the fiscal 2013 defense spending bill approved by the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Tuesday. The language also covers relocations within the Washington, D.C., metro area. The provision can be waived on a case-by-case basis, however, if DOD certifies that such a relocation is in the best interest of the government …

The Army would be prohibited from relocating units at installations with modest concentrations of civilian workers, under the fiscal 2013 spending bill approved by the House Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee Tuesday. The provision would bar the Army from spending milcon appropriations to move units from posts at which the number of civilian employees of the Army and contractors exceeds 10 percent of the total number of Army service members …

Communities slated to lose aircraft and personnel from local Air National Guard bases under the Air Force’s fiscal 2013 budget request would see at least some relief in two measures advancing in the House this week. The FY 2013 defense authorization bill, scheduled to be marked up today by the Armed Services Committee, would restore 2,373 of the 5,100 Guardsmen slots the Air Force proposed eliminating …

Housing officials at Patrick AFB have succeeded in filling most of the base’s vacant homes after opening the units to military retirees and the general public. Currently 94 percent of the homes at the installation located on Florida’s Space Coast are occupied, with 38 percent of the units occupied by retirees, reports Florida Today. At one point, 230 out of 453 homes were vacant, primarily due to the depressed real estate market and economy, and the loss of two Air Force units. The Air Force agreed to the request of Hunt Military Communities, which owns and manages the Patrick housing, to rent the homes to non-active-duty personnel and civilians. There are only 9 units occupied by the general public, a number that likely won’t climb much higher as the base housing will be closed to civilians once occupancy reaches 95 percent.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have signaled they do not plan on authorizing a new BRAC round right away, but lobbyists continue to position defense communities to avoid looming base closures, reports the Washington Post. “My clients aren’t paying me to wait for the closure list to come out,” said Barry Rhoads, president of Cassidy & Associates. Even without a formal BRAC, the military services will try to shave excess capacity in an attempt to cut spending, say experts. “Regardless of whether a BRAC gets passed … DOD has left no doubt in anybody’s mind that follows it that they are going to do things, within the law that they have now, to change the face of installations,” Rhoads said.

The House Budget Committee approved legislation Monday to reverse the discretionary portion of the $109 billion in across-the-board spending cuts slated to take effect next January. Earlier in the day, the panel passed a bill outlining more than $300 billion in savings over 10 years to take the place of the budget sequester …

Funding for all military construction programs would fall $2.4 billion from the current year to $10.6 billion in fiscal 2013 under the draft spending bill for military construction and veterans affairs released by the House Appropriations Committee Monday. A deliberate pause in milcon proposed by the Air Force would account for $839 million of the reduction. A decline in requirements for BRAC 2005 accounts for a small decrease as well …

Two key defense bills unveiled by House committees Monday take dead aim at the Air Force’s plan to eliminate aircraft and personnel assigned to the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves. The draft fiscal 2013 defense spending bill includes $850 million to “pause” retirements and reassignments of Guard and Reserve aircraft until Congress and the Government Accountability Office review cost-benefit analyses of the Air Force’s proposed reductions …