Offutt builds community partnerships

by Staff Sgt. Rachelle Blake
55th Wing Public Affairs

1/27/2015 - OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. -- Members of Team Offutt and the local community recently met for a Final Planning Meeting of the Air Force Community Partnership Initiative at Bellevue University's John B. Muller Administrative Services Building Jan. 21.

"The initiative is designed to identify and develop mutually beneficial partnerships between Air Force instillations and surrounding communities," said U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Gregory Guillot, 55th Wing commander. "Working together, we can leverage the intellectual capital, resources and entrepreneurial spirit of our instillation and community to help sustain cost-effective operations and quality of life programs, while supporting local economic goals and interests."

This meeting was the third in a series of five workshops taking place between October and April. Among the approximately 40 attendees was a mix of base and local community representatives.

The meeting centered on further developing the five initiatives selected by the program's Leadership Committee, chaired by U.S. Air Force Col. Charles Kuhl, 55th Mission Support Group commander, and then reporting the progress to the committee. This Committee includes both community and base leaders.

"We have engaged a cross-section of our surrounding community," said April Gray, 55th Civil Engineer Squadron base community planner. "This included leaders such as mayors, presidents and vice presidents of companies, economic development directors, county executives, and presidents and chancellors of universities and colleges. We wanted a healthy mix of both public and private sectors."

Some partnerships already exist between the base and community, such as the mutual aid agreement with emergency services and the shared firing range facilities.

The initiatives chosen to go forward as potential partnerships include: Shared-use Firing Range, Resiliency Training, Sexual Assault Training, Central Portal, and STRATCOM Gate / Fort Crook Road Transportation Planning. Additionally, existing partnerships are expected to be captured, as "quick wins."

"We know we have the gold standard for community-based relationships and not every base has this," Gray said.

Hopes are to improve on the already established rapport.

"A couple of things we wanted to make sure that the community was aware of was we are not here to just be takers; whatever agreements we come to have need to be mutually beneficial or we don't want to do it. We value our community," Gray said. "This is where we live, work and play, too.  We want them to understand we are doing this because we are all experiencing fiscal constraints right now. These are lean times for everyone, which makes it critical for us to have partnerships in our community."

While five initiatives are moving forward, it is possible for more to surface and develop later in the process. For one such initiative, Offutt is eager to move forward with pursuing enhanced-use leases on some undeveloped property, resulting in a new funding stream for the base.

"It has been exciting to watch the small work groups hone in on what is important and really develop the initiatives into something that is tangible. The potential partnership for a shared-use firing range, for example, found the group pulling in the Sarpy County Sherriff's Department and Bellevue Police Department for input. This group opened a dialog emphasizing that many other small communities in the area also have a need for such a facility."

We hope that, down the road, we might see this one come to fruition, she added.

The next workshop is in March and is the Tabletop Exercise. The final meeting is the Way-Ahead Meeting.

"Afterwards, we may still have quarterly meetings to help keep us on track and develop our ideas," Gray said.