Housing health, safety review ongoing

OFFUTT AFB, NEBRASKA, UNITED STATES

08.29.2019

Courtesy Story

55th Wing

Working to keep a promise, 55th Wing leadership conducted a thorough walk-through of the Offutt Air Force Base dormitories Aug. 9, 2019.

The walk-through by Col. Gavin Marks, 55th Wing commander, and Chief Master Sgt. Brian Thomas, 55th Wing command chief, was just one part of a wing-wide health and safety review of housing.

“I wanted to see the housing here at Offutt Air Force Base first-hand in order to assess the conditions and whether the needs of our Airmen are being met,” Marks said. “The walk-through is just the first step. I also want to make sure our Airmen know that we are committed to ensuring their access to safe, well-maintained housing.”

At this point, 55th Wing leadership has surveyed 1,233 housing units and inspected 418 dormitory and 57 lodging rooms.

As part of the privatized housing survey, 96 health and safety discrepancies were addressed and fixed immediately. There were also 117 non-health or safety related discrepancies annotated, and so far more than 110 have been fixed.

While no discrepancies were found in the 57 Air Force Inn rooms, the wing commander has temporarily suspended O’Malley Inn operations. The facility had already closed 49 rooms due to mold; the remaining 30 have now also been closed out of an abundance of caution.

Finally, discrepancies were identified in 234 dormitory rooms. Of those, 90 were considered possible health and safety issues, which are currently being reviewed and worked.

“While we have addressed and fixed a great deal of the discrepancies found, we are not close to wrapping up this mission,” Marks said. “We are continuing to assess and address many issues from those of you living in those facilities.”

While similar inspections and surveys will now be done on a yearly basis moving forward, the next step is to ensure service members and their families are informed of all avenues to report maintenance issues.

For Rising View, Offutt’s privatized housing contractor, maintenance office hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. However, they can be reached for after-hours emergencies at [phone]. Residents are encouraged to call any time they have water leaks, no hot water, or no heat or air conditioning. In addition, residents can make service requests through the Resident Portal located at: https://RisingView.ActiveBuilding.com/.

For dorm residents, please report any problems to your Airman Dorm Leader during duty hours. For after-hours emergencies regarding air conditioning, heating, leaks, or plumbing issues, call 294-6101.

For visitors who are staying at Offutt’s Air Force Inn or those who in the Temporary Lodging Facilities, please report issues to the Offutt Air Force Inn front desk. They will report TLF and Air Force Inn maintenance to Rising View and Inn maintenance, respectively.

To ensure these processes are clear, Rising View is going to going to provide door hangars and magnets to residents soon which outline the step-by-step process of reporting maintenance issues.

“In the case that you hit a roadblock and nothing is getting done, Col. Marks and I would encourage you to utilize your chain-of-command,” Thomas said. “If you are still are not getting any results, I would encourage you to use the Commander’s Action Line or contact us directly.”

The Commander’s Action Line can be reached by email or telephone at [e-mail] or [phone].

“The bottom line is we want to provide you with as many options as we can, to find solutions and offer feedback to make Offutt’s housing better for everyone,” Thomas said.

In addition, the wing commander and command chief along with Rising View will host a Town Hall meeting for residents in September.

“Our housing enterprise will continue to receive my attention and will continue to be prioritized until we have alleviated all concerns and our facilities reach the world-class standard our residents deserve,” Marks said.

• Date Taken: 08.29.2019
• Date Posted: 12.19.2019 09:31
• Story ID: 356225
• Location: OFFUTT AFB, NEBRASKA, US