Base leaders hold Town Hall meeting

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Stephanie Englar
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  Columbus Air Force Base held a town hall meeting May 30 at the Columbus Club to discuss important topics regarding billing issues, renovation projects and child care.

The issues discussed during the meeting included the renovations at the Koritz Clinic, mechanical renovations at Magnolia Village, resident's utility allowances for base housing and age requirements for children to be allowed to stay at home alone.

The Koritz Clinic is currently undergoing a 23 million dollar renovation and is scheduled to be complete April 2015. Renovations are not expected to impact patient services. The objective for the renovations include consolidating all medical services into one building, updating the parking lot, and modernizing the existing facility. Starting mid-August, part of the renovation process is to house Family Health, Flight Medicine, Medical Records, Immunizations and the Pharmacy in a 20,000 square foot temporary facility. The move will be advertised with signage and advance notification through Public Affairs outlets

Along with the clinic, there are renovations scheduled for State Village, now that Magnolia Village has been completed. Hunt Housing is starting a new program which will assign the same technician to an individual's home for an entire quarter.

Maintenance has reported dramatic improvement in work order response times and completion times. When it comes to completion times for work orders, there are three types of work orders: emergency, urgent, and routine.

Emergency service calls are classified as life threatening or threatens to extensively damage the property. These types of calls include overflowing drains, roof leaks, broken water lines, sewage backups, electrical power outages, electrical defects which may cause fire or shock, gas leaks and loss of heat or air conditioning. Emergency work orders require a one hour response time.

Urgent service calls are classified when the work order does not immediately endanger life or property, but would inconvenience the well being of the individual. Urgent work orders require a four hour response time.

Routine service calls are everything that is not classified by one of the other two categories. Routine work orders require a 24 duty-hours response time.

Maintenance requests can be filled out on the official website, www.columbusfamilyhousing.com. Residents can provide feedback about maintenance by mail, answering follow up calls, and email surveys.

Along with covering ongoing and future renovations, the meeting also covered the utility allowance and child care.

Minol reported that from October of last year to May of this year, 38 percent of the residents did not have to pay in to a utility overage, 5 percent had a payment due and 56 percent received refunds. They urge residents who are consistently going over their utility allowance to contact maintenance and have them come out to do an energy usage inspection.

Part of the meeting covered Base Child Supervision Guidelines. It had a reminder that parents are ultimately responsible for their children, and to use good judgment regardless of age restrictions. Twelve year old children can be left alone for extended periods of time and can also babysit with an approved Red Cross certification. Children aged 10 through 11 can be left alone for up to two hours and children aged 16 or older can be left alone overnight.

Overall, Residents were able to have their questions answered by representatives from the Medical Clinic, Hunt Housing and Minol. The meeting gave residents the opportunity to hear about changes coming to the base in the near future and the ability to voice their opinions and complaints.