Town hall meeting addresses base quality of life

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class William O'Brien
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Editor's note: This article is the first in a two-part series highlighting the 95th Air Base Wing commander's town hall meeting. 

The 95th Air Base Wing commander hosted his first town hall meeting Aug. 25 at the Edwards Conference Center. 

More than 50 base residents participated in the open forum style town hall meeting with Col. Jerry Gandy. 

As the 95th ABW commander and Edwards installation commander, Colonel Gandy is responsible for base operations including infrastructure, communication systems, security, medical services, fire protection, transportation, supply, finance, contracting, legal services, personnel and manpower support as well as housing, education, chapel and quality-of-life programs. 

"Welcome to the town hall meeting," said Colonel Gandy. "This begins a dialogue between me, my staff and you. I really hope that this is a dialogue. This is simply a town hall meeting for us to discuss some issues." 

Colonel Gandy said his job is to provide support to America's premier flight test center -- the Air Force Flight Test Center, which includes servicemembers and their families.
During the meeting, the bulk of the issues addressed were the base's quality of life, including housing improvements, watering schedules and increasing the amount of grass in the yards. 

He reminded housing residents to be good stewards of California's natural resources, reiterating the importance of xeriscaping because it helps to conserve water. 

"We need a five-year plan to standardize the landscaping," he said. "We are going to benchmark ourselves against bases in the Southwest, such as Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. to look at how can we become environmental stewards, comply with the xeriscape standards and yet make the base look professional and standardized." 

The bottom-line is the base needs to get away from the "hodgepodge landscaping" that has developed in the micro and aggregate to something more standardized, Colonel Gandy said. However, the brand new homes can't be touched for the first three years. The base can't improve landscaping in the private dwellings, however residents have the option to do self-help through materials the base will purchase such as plants, rocks, and pavers for resident's use. The base housing office will be issuing instructions on 
how to pick up materials once they come in. 

He said housing construction met delays because of the changes in the number, type and location of the houses built and environmental impacts. These changes and delays forced previous leadership to make priority choices in building out the houses. All houses meet AF standards, but were not finished to some of the standards we desired. However, the houses are larger and feature air conditioning, two-car garages and storage inside and out. After the housing construction is complete in 2010, the base will have received 796 new homes. 

"When the housing construction is complete, the oldest occupied house on base will be 11 years old," said Colonel Gandy. "Not many other bases can say that."