Bragg's Town Hall Meeting Tackles Issues

This is where it all happens, folks. Got a complaint? Curious who is in charge of organizations on Fort Bragg that can make changes? Attend the Town Hall meetings and get all the answers and more.

At Tuesday's Town Hall meeting at the Yntema Club on Fort Bragg, seven previous issues submitted were addressed by the agency point of contacts and Garrison Commander, Col. Stephen Sicinski.

Highlights

The Tax Center has moved from the trailers in the parking lot by the courthouse into the sixth floor of the SSC and had a record year according to Col. Sicinski.

"They serviced 100 plus percent more people than in previous years, and the wait times went down from an eight hour wait for a walk-in, down to less than an hour," he said.

Need To Know

Soldier Support Center Agencies are designed to provide maximum utilization by the organizations that facilitate the soldier and/or family in and out processing and support.

The upcoming relocation of the WTB from the SSC  to its new campus across Normandy Drive has provided an opportunity to once again bring into the SSC new organizations to support the one-stop soldier and family support mission.

The Central Issue Facility (CIF) will have a new location in one warehouse located on East Bragg to ensure that space is available to stock all the items needed for rapid fielding initiative (RFI) to better accomodate the needs of the troops.

"We've integrated the RFI process and all the traditional CIF under one roof, in one facility that has all of our bench stock items readily at hand," said Sicinski. "This prevents soldiers from coming back under multiple visits; the process of getting your basic issue in seven minutes still exists and we can now ensure that the seven minutes does not turn into seven minutes on multiple days."

FRG Training

For volunteers working and going to school who might not be able to attend the classes on post, the training is available online, in the eLearning Center, once logged in.

Plans are in the works to establish a dedicated Family Readiness Center, fully instrumented with IT, that will be located at the former officer's club at the northern end of post around the projected date of September 27.

"Inside the Soldier Support Center is inadequate space for FRG support," Sicinski said. "We wanted a space where we can have a battalion size FRG meeting at one single time, this is a requirement that the community identified several years ago when I first got here and we are now almost at the point where we can deliver that."

Parking Signage

"Parking spaces have been re-striped as normal parking spaces and are open and free to all that come to the area," said Greg Johnson, Chief of Housing, DPW and DPTM. "On the installation we do not have designated parking spaces other than handicapped with very few exceptions."

Col. Sicinski reminded all that parking is a premium on post and designated parking is for those with the word 'Commander' in his title(and that does not mean, Household Commander, ladies); the only exception are First Sergeants.

Crack Down on Off-Season Lemon Lot RV and Boat Storage

Joe Johnson, Community Recreation Director, explained that state-of-the-art RV and boat storage facility is expanding in size to include an electric keypad for after hours usage for patrons. The facility will triple in size, to around 250 more spaces, and will have competitive rates compared to outside of post on the economy.

"As a consequence, the lemon lot will be scrutinized in the off-season,ensuring that the vehicles parked in the lemon lot aren't there for storage with a million dollar price tag on the windscreen" said Sicinski. "I know as well as you, that you tend to park your RV's there in the off-season to store it there because we don't have adequate facilities on Fort Bragg to take of that."

Down Syndrome Support Network

"We don't currently have a specific Down Syndrome Support Group, there are a couple of different agencies in the community that provide that support and our intent is to not duplicate those organizations," said Patricia Newton of Army Community Services. "We do have a support group in Linden Oaks, we have a behavior support group and we have a depression support group and we constantly rotate those support groups because of a lack of participation."

Multiple resources are available on the ACS website. For Picerne Military Housing there are groups that meet in the neighborhood center two times a month in Ardennes. The next meeting is on June 21 from 5:30 to 8:00p.m.