Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch will join senior state and military officials for the dedication of the $24 million Armed Forces Reserve Center (AFRC), beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday (Jan. 7) at 3001 Manufacturers Drive, Madison.
The state-owned facility, which opened in late August 2011, is the home station for more than 740 service members in the Wisconsin National Guard, Army Reserve, Navy Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve. The AFRC meets or exceeds LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver criteria, meaning the building meets up to 60 percent of potential efficiencies in sustainability, energy and water conservation, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality.
The Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) of 2005 called for closing the Truman Olson and G.F. O'Connell U.S. Army Reserve Centers in Madison, Wis., the Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center in Madison and the Navy Reserve Center in La Crosse, Wis. — as well as the Navy Reserve Center in Dubuque, Iowa — and relocating the units from those facilities in a new Armed Forces Reserve Center in Madison. This decision reduced costs for maintaining older and overcrowded reserve component facilities and avoided an estimated $12.7 million in renovation costs.
The Army recommended that Wisconsin Army National Guard units from four facilities in Madison also relocate to the new AFRC.
Construction on the AFRC began in October 2009 and was substantially completed in June 2011. Units began moving into the new facility between mid-July and mid-September.
The ceremony will begin at 1 p.m. in the lower-level assembly hall. The ceremony will conclude with the formal ribbon cutting at the upper-level atrium.
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