Posts Tagged ‘BRAC’

Kathleen Ferguson, the Air Force official responsible for BRAC, enhanced use leasing, privatization, sustainability and other real property issues since October 2007, has been promoted to principal deputy assistant secretary for installations, environment, logistics and energy. Ferguson will assume her new post after Debra Tune, the current principal deputy assistant secretary, retires from the Air Force in September. A decision on who will replace Ferguson as deputy assistant secretary for installations has not yet been announced …

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed a measure Friday to speed up the disposal of unneeded and underutilized federal property and help agencies manage existing space in a more cost-effective manner. Last week, DC 360 reported incorrectly that the committee had approved the 2012 Federal Real Property Asset Management Reform Act, S. 2178, on Wednesday. The committee, however, voted only to amend the measure with a substitute bill on Wednesday. The panel could not approve the legislation because it lacked a quorum …

The $14.1 billion, or 67 percent, escalation in costs to implement the 2005 round of base closures, along with the concomitant 72 percent drop in projected savings, has been widely discussed, especially since January when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed the Pentagon’s intention to ask for a new BRAC authority. The jump in the number of recommendations that are not expected to yield savings over a 20-year period had not been clear earlier, however. DOD now is expecting 75 out of 182 recommendations, or 41 percent, approved by the BRAC Commission to have a negative 20-year net present value …

L. Jerry Hansen, who had served as the Army’s number two official in the office of the assistant secretary for installations, energy and the environment, retired from the Army last month. In Hansen’s place is J. Randall Robinson, who has been the office’s acting principal deputy since June 1. Robinson previously held a series of management and staff positions with the Army’s Installation Management Command and its predecessor …

A Senate committee passed legislation Tuesday intended to help agencies shed underutilized and unneeded federal property as part of an initiative to save $15 billion over 10 years. The Federal Real Property Asset Management Reform Act, passed by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, would streamline the current federal real property disposal process and implement measures that eliminate property mismanagement and achieve greater efficiencies within the existing disposal process. S. 2178 would create a Federal Real Property Council to help agencies better manage existing space in a more cost-effective manner and require each agency to have a senior real property management officer …

The Naval Facilities Engineering Command activity responsible for coordinating construction of the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., was disestablished during a ceremony last week. The Officer-In-Charge of Construction Bethesda supported and executed the design and construction of more than 650,000 square feet of military medical patient facilities, 415,000 square feet of administrative facilities and 285,000 square feet of barracks space for wounded warriors and their families …

The implementation LRA for the former Naval Air Station Willow Grove will look very much like the entity that led the effort to forge a reuse plan for the 861-acre site, as the Horsham Township Council on Monday appointed four current members of the LRA to the new authority. The council’s president was the one new member appointed to the authority that will carry out a plan that calls for a mix of uses, including a town center, neighborhoods with a variety of housing types, office and business parks, areas for recreation and parks, and other uses …

The state of Maryland has been awarded a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to complete construction of a new station on a commuter rail line serving Aberdeen Proving Ground. About 8,200 new positions came to the proving ground as a result of BRAC 2005, bringing the installation’s workforce to 22,000. The grant will pay for converting the Edgewood, Md., station from a platform to a fully functioning MARC station …

At a press briefing during a visit to Fort Hood on Friday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said the Pentagon’s plan to eliminate up to 80,000 soldiers from the Army over the next five years would have a “relatively small” impact on the Central Texas post. “There will probably be some small decrement, but I expect that there will be small decrements across the entire Army at many installations …

In response to declining defense budgets and the possibility of new base closure rounds, the 21st Century Partnership, the community partner for Robins Air Force Base in Middle Georgia, voted last Thursday to shift to a president-CEO organizational structure. “Organizationally, we were missing opportunities to grow,” said Rick Goddard, the partnership’s senior advisor, reported the Warner Robins Patriot. “We needed a full-time leader to manage the efforts and needs of the organization on a day-to-day basis … and not on an advisory or part-time basis …