Posts Tagged ‘community military partnership’

The past five base closure rounds offer a wide array of lessons to community and installation officials grappling with the challenges of ever-tightening budgets and the likelihood that the Pentagon will be forced to pare down its infrastructure in the coming years, according to a new report issued by ADC. Using BRAC Lessons Learned to Address the Resource Challenges of Today is the product of a workshop held at the ADC 2012 Annual Conference which offered members of the association and the military a unique opportunity to consider how experiences from previous BRAC rounds can be adapted for future rounds and to deal with issues now confronting DOD …

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) last week awarded $2.9 million to local municipalities and community organizations to help preserve the state’s military installations as tens of billions of dollars in federal defense spending is threatened. The state’s military installations provide more than 10,000 direct jobs, $688 million in direct wages and a $1.9 billion economic impact …

After more than a year of wrangling, the New Orleans Federal Alliance and the board of the Algiers Development District appear to have come to an agreement over how they will jointly manage the Federal City project, a public-private development located at the former Naval Support Activity New Orleans. On Sunday, the alliance signed a cooperative endeavor agreement that outlines how the two groups will share responsibility for managing the project …

Jacksonville is going for a twofer when it hosts its Week of Valor next month, an effort to raise its profile as both a military-friendly and sports-friendly city. The week’s events will feature a college basketball game aboard the USS Bataan at Mayport Naval Station, a veterans jobs fair and a military appreciation lunch. For Jacksonville, the Week of Valor is an opportunity for the city to showcase its support for the military …

To protect Robins Air Force Base in the next BRAC round, the 21st Century Partnership needs to raise $5 million over the next five years and assess how the Middle Georgia installation would be evaluated according to the likely BRAC criteria, Robert McMahon, the base support group’s new president and CEO, said last week. McMahon’s plan, which the partnership approved, calls for preparing studies on a range of factors, including Robins’ operational performance and quality of life. “No one should be surprised when the results of the next BRAC come out, what those results say about us,” he said. McMahon, who was the commander of Warner Robins Air Logistics Center when he retired from the Air Force this summer, said he expects the next BRAC round to occur in 2015 or 2017, reported the Telegraph.

The Imperial County Board of Supervisors this week tapped Matrix Design Group to prepare a joint land use study for Naval Air Facility El Centro. The effort to tackle existing encroachment issues threatening the installation is part of the county’s campaign to host a squadron of F-35C Joint Strike Fighters, reported the Imperial Valley Press. Members of the community’s Joint Strike Fighter Coalition and local leaders recently visited Washington, D.C., where they met with members of the Armed Services committees and DOD officials. El Centro is competing with Naval Air Station Lemoore in Central California for the mission. El Centro’s JLUS is expected to be completed in about 15 months.

The Air Force Personnel Center is taking a tailored approach to how it provides morale, welfare and recreation services at installations, along with the type of programs it offers. Under the Services Transformation Initiative, which has been launched at eight bases so far, installations will offer only those programs and services that airmen and commanders who live and work there want …

The Federal Aviation Administration last week selected six new airports to participate in the 2012 Military Airport Program, including three joint-use airports. The joint-use airports selected are: Northwest Florida Regional Airport at Eglin Air Force Base, Valparaiso, Fla.; Sheppard AFB/Wichita Falls Municipal Airport, Wichita Falls, Texas; and March Inland Port/March Air Reserve Base, Riverside, Calif. The other airports selected are located at former military bases: Griffiss International (Griffiss AFB), Rome, N.Y.; Castle Airport (Castle AFB), Merced County, Calif.; and Kalaeloa Airport/John Rodgers Field (Naval Air Station Barbers Point), Kapolei, Hawaii.

The Georgia Land Trust has acquired 5,400 acres of land to add to the buffer between the eastern edge of Fort Stewart and rapidly growing urban areas outside the post. The conservation easement acquired by the land trust took advantage of a grant awarded under DOD’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative, a program used to preserve compatible land uses and sustain wildlife habitat near military installations and ranges. The conservation easement buffers lands where Fort Stewart conducts frequent prescribed burns to maintain habitat for red-cockaded woodpeckers and other endangered species that inhabit the fire-dependent longleaf pine ecosystem, reported the Savannah Morning News. The current property owner will continue to use the tract under a lease agreement for timber production, which is considered a compatible use.

In an ongoing effort to protect Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton from restrictions on training, a Southern California land conservancy last week acquired a conservation easement on a 184-acre parcel outside of the installation. The Fallbrook Land Conservancy acquired the easement through DOD’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative, a program which supports cost-sharing partnerships between the military services, private conservation groups, and state and local governments to protect military test and training capabilities and wildlife habitats …