ANSBACH, Germany (May 19, 2015) -- Breaking from the traditional town hall format, U.S. Army Garrison Ansbach held town halls at Bismarck and Storck theaters Wednesday to discuss permanent changes of station and other issues related to the recent Aviation Restructuring Initiative announcement.
As part of ARI, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade will restructure, which will result in a reduction of approximately 1,900 permanent U.S. military positions and an estimated 2,850 associated Family members from USAGs Ansbach, Stuttgart and Wiesbaden.
Over the next few months, several 12th CAB units will realign or inactivate. Additionally, permanent military members stationed at Storck Barracks at Illesheim, Germany, will move to the Ansbach area as rotational units use Storck Barracks to train and deploy in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve.
Col. Christopher M. Benson, USAG Ansbach commander, led the town hall, and spoke of the garrison's vital role in U.S. Army Europe's mission.
"We are still here, we still have a community to support, we still have a mission," said Benson. "And as long as aviation is required in Europe, Ansbach is the place for those aviation assets to be. We are the strategic aviation platform for all of U.S. Army aviation in Europe."
In past town halls, Benson traditionally provided a retrospective of the accomplishments of the garrison and a look at upcoming events and challenges. Wednesday's town halls focused more on the short-term upcoming permanent changes of station, and garrison service providers delineated challenges related specifically to their services.
"Our commitment is to support our community members," said Benson. "Our number one priority is to make sure the 12th CAB mission of restructuring is successful in the timeline that we're given."
DIRECTORATE OF HUMAN RESOURCES:
The round of service providers began with Damon Wilford, director of Human Resources. Wilford went over the step-by-step timeline of out-processing beginning with the levy brief and ending with the departure via Patriot Express or commercial air flight.
According to Wilford, upon receipt of PCS orders, Soldiers should contact those agencies that require the most lead time to schedule and process their PCS needs. Typically, these are Transportation for picking up household goods, Housing to schedule a clearing appointment, SATO Travel to schedule outbound flights, Vehicle Processing Center to schedule a vehicle shipment, the Central Issue Facility to schedule turn-in of issued items, and the Veterinary Treatment Facility to help meet the needs of pets.
DIRECTORATE OF PUBLIC WORKS:
Following Wilford, Walter Mattil, director of Public Works, spoke of how the unit changes will affect housing.
"This is a unit move," said Mattil. "There are a different set of rules that equate to a unit move."
Because of the significant change in population, housing on post will open up, and housing off post will be less necessary.
Mattil outlined that in general the following will occur for residents of Storck Barracks. Single 12th CAB Soldiers who live at Storck Barracks will move to the barracks on the north side of Katterbach Army Airfield at government expense. Single Soldiers not with 12th CAB who live at Storck Barracks will move to Bismarck Kaserne at government expense. Families who live at Storck Barracks will move to Katterbach Kaserne at government expense. Single Soldiers who are sergeants first class and senior ranks who live off post in the Illesheim area can be moved to Katterbach at government expense. All housing on the south side of the Katterbach airfield will be the home of Soldiers of the rank of staff sergeant and junior.
Mattil said there will always be exceptions.
"We won't move someone who has three months, but those we'll have to look at individually," said Mattil.
Families with a five-bedroom requirement may move to Bleidorn Kaserne or, in exceptional cases, to off-post housing, although the housing office will work with each of those Families on a case-by-case basis.
Mattil expects the workload of the Housing Office to be large, but they are preparing to handle it.
"The housing office surged and is pre-postured with borrowed military manpower to accommodate clearing in the scope and breadth we've never had to do before," said Mattil. "They are prepared to get everyone through as seamlessly and as painlessly as possible."
Mattil also covered what residents must do concerning vehicles, pets and trash.
Vehicle owners have a number of options. Shipping vehicles can be done through the vehicle processing center at Barton Barracks. Vehicle owners can sell their vehicle through the resale lot at Katterbach Kaserne. Or, for a $65 fee, the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation can dispose of vehicles.
Pet owners should never release their animals into the wild. Pet abandonment is punishable by law, and Germany can levy a 25,000 euro fine. Pet owners on the verge of moving must contact the Veterinary Treatment Facility as soon as possible to figure out options. Additionally, there is a blog on finding a good home for Family pets at the blog (in "Related Links" section).
As far as trash, the Area Support Team picks up bulk items (those items too large to fit in a car) the first Monday of the month. Immediate bulk pickup can be coordinated with the Katterbach AST by calling 09802-83-2267/2268 or DSN 467-2267/2268 or with the Storck AST by calling 09841-83-4690 or DSN 467-4690.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DEPENDENT SCHOOLS:
After Mattil concluded, Douglas McEnery of the Department of Defense Dependent Schools - Europe briefed the closures of Rainbow Elementary School and Illesheim Elementary School. The schools at USAG Ansbach are also set to close June 5, which is a week early, to accommodate the forthcoming population changes.
"For those of you who are leaving, I encourage you to come by and hand-carry single copies of your records," said McEnery. "That will make your transition easier. If you don't do that, we will still retain copies of the records for those who are at Illesheim and Rainbow. We keep all records for one year, and then we ship all records to Sembach, Germany, where you can also retrieve records beyond the first year."
As part of the forthcoming changes, sixth grade students will be integrated into the Ansbach Middle/High School, although their area and scheduling will be distinct from the rest of the middle/high school.
Those in charge of student transportation are currently working through what the new bus routes will be following the closure of two elementary schools, according to McEnery. It is also likely that school buses will transport all grades from kindergarten through high school. Without a full picture of population data for the new school year, putting out a new schedule would be premature.
"We probably won't announce them until August because of the fluidity of people's movements," said McEnery.
Because of the decreased population, there will be fewer participants in sports teams. A community member raised the question as to whether Ansbach students might team up with other Army garrison school teams in Germany.
"If you're doing a cross-country team, let's say, you could train an individual here and they could join up for team points," said McEnery. "We did that in Bamberg and Schweinfurt very successfully. They had the advantage of being significantly closer than we currently are [to other garrisons]. In football, they are looking at a division that might play nine-man football. We will do what we can to have programs that meet the needs of kids. It may not be possible in all cases."
DIRECTORATE OF FAMILY AND MORALE, WELFARE AND RECREATION:
Dan Riley, director of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation, took the stage next to update the town hall on forthcoming changes.
The Storck Child Development Center and School Age Center will stay open until Sept. 30. Students enrolled at Storck will be offered a space at the Katterbach CDC or SAC. School-age services will be delivered at Katterbach at the start of the upcoming school year. It will be "business as usual" during the summer according to Riley, with hourly care available at Storck. The Youth Center will close at the end of the school year. The youth summer camp will take place at Katterbach Kaserne with shuttling available for Storck Barracks-area students. The youth sports programs at Storck Barracks are scheduled to continue this summer.
The Automotive Skills Center at Storck Barracks is scheduled to close Sept. 30. Services still will be offered at the Automotive Skills Center at Urlas Community.
"If we have to adjust operating hours to accommodate patrons who will drive down from Storck to work on cars, we will do that," said Riley.
The Value-Added Tax office at Storck will close July 30. The same service will continue to be offered at MWR Central at Urlas Community.
"The ACS, the Fitness Center, and the library, the Warrior Zone and the Bowling Center will all re-gear and retool their operations at Storck to serve the RAB, to serve the population that comes and goes in waxing and waning numbers," said Riley. "We'll expand some of the services. We'll probably open an additional Warrior Zone out here. We'll change some of the Family-friendly features in the library to be more Soldier-friendly. All those operations will survive. We'll retool all them to meet the new demographic at Storck."
Riley said the changes will affect 35 DFMWR positions.
"Job one is finding work for all those employees who want jobs," said Riley. "We have a large number of vacancies right now. We have a number of mechanisms and methods to find people work in this community or in other communities in Europe. A certain amount of hardship will happen when those positions go away, but if employees continue to desire to be in the workforce, we will continue to find positions, and for some it will even be a new career opportunity. It's tough closing up, but we have a lot of work to do, and we need good people to do it."
ARMY & AIR FORCE EXCHANGE SERVICE:
Chris Holifield, the Exchange director at USAG Ansbach, spoke next. He said that to best understand the future of AAFES at USAG Ansbach, they looked at similar installations in Europe.
All AAFES facilities are to consolidate services to the Urlas shopping complex. The shoppette and food facilities at both Storck Barracks and Katterbach Kaserne are set to close with most of those services to be available at Urlas. Because food options are available at the Urlas shopping complex, Burger King at Katterbach Kaserne is scheduled to close as well. Concession operations at Katterbach Kaserne, such as Subway and the Döner stand, will stay in operation.
Also, the Bismarck Theater is set to close Oct. 1, according to Holifield during the town hall.
"We're not getting the numbers now," said Holifield of theater attendance in reference to the projected attendance after ARI takes effect.
The gas station at Bismarck Kaserne will also close, but the car care center is set to remain open.
[UPDATE] As of May 19, the Exchange is reanalyzing patronage to the shoppette at Katterbach Kaserne and the Bismarck theater, according to Holifield. Should there be a different decision, USAG Ansbach will update the community through the garrison information outlets.
DEFENSE COMMISSARY AGENCY:
Raul Abrego, store director of the Ansbach Commissary, spoke next. According to Abrego, the commissary at Storck Barracks is still expected to close Sept. 30, as was outlined in the European Infrastructure Consolidation announcement earlier this year. The commissary at Storck will continue to be fully operational until closure, according to Benson. The commissary at Urlas Community will continue serving customers, according to Abrego.
CONCLUSION
Benson concluded the town hall before the question session.
"Are there going to be friction points? Of course," said Benson. "The key to that is our communication, both from the garrison to you and from you to the garrison, so we can address those issues that are out there, address those friction points, and take the necessary measures to mitigate those friction points.
"We know what we're doing, we have experts out there that can assist, and we have a process," continued Benson. "Bear in mind that we're all doing our best to ensure that this transition -- regardless of rank, category, unit -- will be smooth for everyone."
Following the town hall, service representatives stood at the side of the theater to talk one-on-one with community members.
To keep the USAG Ansbach community updated on important issues related to the forthcoming changes due to ARI and permanent changes of station, the garrison public affairs office has begun a blog on the subject -- available at http://teamansbach.com/moving-within-or-departing-our-community/ or by selecting "Team Ansbach: Moving within or departing our community (blog)" in the "Related Links" section on this page.
Related Links:
Team Ansbach: USAG Ansbach official blog site
Team Ansbach: Moving within or departing our community (blog)
USAG Ansbach official home page
Franconian News: USAG Ansbach official news page
USAG Ansbach official Flickr page
USAG Ansbach official Twitter feed
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