On March 26, in the Global Force Warrior’s Corner, panelists shared insights on how military installations can save money to invest in keeping today’s warfighter ready and installations resilient.
The Partnerships and Intergovernmental Support Agreements panel featured Erin Bearhalter, project manager at Salas O’Brien; Col. Erin Eike, Garrison commander; Wes Kelley, president and CEO of Huntsville Utilities; and Hector Gonzalez, government affairs manager at El Paso Water.
Bearhalter introduced the discussion by explaining the many projects that involve intergovernmental support agreements.
“The G9 portfolio includes everything from housing to military construction, child care, energy and water security, resilience, sustainability,” Bearhalter said. “It leads the way across the Army enterprise to modernize our installations, enhance the quality of life, develop and implement policies to ensure total Army readiness and top-tier quality of life for Soldiers and their families.”
Also, these agreements save the Army money, she said.
“Currently, the Army alone has 185 of these IGSAs, and that results in a $55 million one-time cost avoidance, and we get a recurring $105 million in savings to the (Department of Defense).”
Eike highlighted how important these agreements are to the quality of life on Redstone Arsenal and the Army post’s bottom line since she assumed command.
“So, I’ve only been the Garrison commander at Redstone Arsenal for about eight months, but in that short time, I’ve quickly realized how important intergovernmental support agreements are for this installation,” Eike said. “It enhances that relationship with the local community.”
Eike also said the agreements often allow the Garrison to secure a higher quality of service at a lower cost, saving about $2 million annually.
Those savings mean the Garrison is “able to support the warfighter better tomorrow,” she said.
Eike highlighted four agreements with local agencies Redstone Arsenal is currently using to enhance resiliency and capability.
First, an agreement with the University of Alabama in Huntsville allows Redstone to get technical support from student employees. This provides the students with valuable experience while it builds the candidate pool for the installation.
“So, as we have vacancies on the installation, we have personnel who are ready and willing to step into those positions,” Eike said.
Next Eike highlighted an agreement with the City of Huntsville.
“We purchase natural gas directly from them,” she said. “We utilize the city’s buying power, which results in lower rates and lower overhead costs. This is about $500,000 annually in savings compared to the last contract.”
The third agreement she highlighted is with the Solid Waste Disposal Authority. It allows Redstone to purchase steam commodities that provide heating and cooling on the installation.
This has allowed renegotiation of Redstone’s minimum purchase requirements and saved $800,000 this past year.
This also enables the disposal authority to convert excess steam into electricity and provide that electricity back to the installation, which has decreased Redstone Arsenal’s power bill by close to $3 million.
“This also provides reliability as we receive 8-12 megawatts of power on a continuous basis. This increases our power resiliency, as well,” Eike said.
She then spoke about the partnership with Huntsville Utilities. “They provide the operating and maintenance of electrical, gas and water infrastructure,” Eike said. “We can utilize their vast experience and knowledge. Their purchasing power has saved on our material costs. We are a high-priority customer for them. Any outages we have on our installation, particularly to our critical mission sets, it minimizes our outage impact and saves us about $500,000 annually as well.”
Kelley said while the agreements help the Army, they also help Huntsville Utilities prepare for the future. “About eight years ago there first started to be talk of doing business a different way,” he said. “That really was due to Garrison leadership who said, ‘You know what? You have the same crews, you have the same trucks, you use the same materials, there ought to be some way we can work together for the advantage of both of us?’”
It didn’t take long to find the solution.
“What we’ve been able to put together is an intergovernmental support agreement that leverages all the workforce we already have right outside the fence,” Kelley said. “To be able to deploy that workforce as needed to make sure that Redstone can continue its missions. The Army has saved money, and Huntsville Utilities has been able to add to its capability and capacity.”
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