Hill signs community partnership agreement

  • Published
  • By Richard W. Essary
  • 75th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  The base entered into a new community partnership Monday that will further strengthen ongoing cooperation with the Davis Area and Ogden-Weber Convention and Visitors Bureaus, as well as northern Utah's hotel industry.

A memorandum of agreement, signed with both convention and visitors bureaus, effectively expands opportunities for local hotels to participate in Hill's commercial lodging program by allowing groups of 10 or more on official government travel to utilize off-base lodging when there isn't lodging available on base.

The new streamlined group reservation process is not only convenient for travelers seeking off-base lodging support, but will save the base's lodging office employees' time and labor searching for optimum-priced, off-base lodging for groups by having the visitors bureaus coordinate the lodging requests with local hotels and formulating lists of lodging bids from the hotels that choose to participate in the program.

The benefit to the community is that hoteliers will see a measurable increase in Hill lodging customers going off-base for lodging support.

"Historically, Hill Air Force Base has enjoyed the benefits of strong community partnership and support," said Col. Kathryn Kolbe, 75th Air Base Wing and Installation commander. "This lodging agreement is another victory that reaffirms these enduring close community ties, and moreover, emphasizes mutual equities, or 'win-win' benefits, for both Hill and the local community."

Hill is one of more than a dozen agencies across the Air Force participating in an inaugural program -- the Air Force Community Partnership Initiative -- to explore cost-saving opportunities through partnerships and shared services with local communities, government agencies and the private sector.

The first of such Hill AFB agreements was signed June 6 and created a partnership between the base's Gerrity Memorial Library and Emporia College, Salt Lake Community College and Weber State University. As part of that agreement, students pursuing degrees in education or library sciences can intern with the base's library providing services and programs for the base populace. In turn, students receive academic credit for their degree programs while getting practical job training and experience.

This lodging agreement is the second partnership.

Christian Peal, Hill's lodging manager, explained the new process.

"When group travelers on official business make a lodging request that we won't be able to support on base, our lodging office will coordinate that request with the local visitors' bureaus," Peal said. "The bureaus then return a list of participating bids to the Hill lodging office, which selects the bids that best suit the needs of official travelers to Hill."

Peal also emphasized that a hotel's participation in any bid request is on a voluntary, opt-in or opt-out basis. "The Air Force won't dictate prices or participation to the hotels and hotels can opt-in or opt-out whenever they choose," he said. "The Air Force benefits because it cuts down on the lodging office's off-base rooms research work and also because we know that hotels will often have excess rooms to fill at competitive prices."

There has been a decline in the number of official government travelers for the past three years and the Air Force Personnel Center recently finalized a right-sizing study with recommendations for each lodging operation across the Air Force.

"Taking that recommendation into consideration, the age of our facilities, as well as an annual occupancy in our visiting quarters below 75 percent, we are divesting of three of our visiting quarters buildings - 65 rooms in all," Peal said. "This will bring both on-base lodging into compliance with our 75 percent annual occupancy requirement and provide additional bed nights that will be accommodated in off-base hotels."

"This is just the beginning," said Maj. Kris Long, 75th Operations Support Squadron director of operations who has overseen development of the first two base-community partnership agreements. "In some cases these agreements could be expanded to take advantage of new opportunities, while others may eventually be redirected by other new developments or influences."

On Wednesday, an executive committee was also established with the signing of a Community Partnership Charter. The purpose of the committee, which will be made up of Hill and local community leaders, is to meet monthly to review progress on existing partnerships and explore new partnership opportunities.

"Our mandate is to continue to forge partnerships that provide meaningful benefits to both Hill and the local communities," Kolbe said. "We've made great success to this point, and the charter and committee will provide the mechanisms to ensure this success continues into the future.

"Our nation's leadership has called on military installations to cut costs and increase efficiencies," Kolbe said. "These new partnership authorities are a legal means to seek new opportunities to do just that - cut costs, increase efficiencies and find ways for both military installations and local communities to find benefits."

Other bases participating in the Air Force Community Partnership Initiative include: Altus AFB, Okla.; Beale AFB, Calif.; Buckley AFB, Colo.; Ellsworth AFB, S.D.; Fairchild AFB, Wash.; Joint Base Andrews, Md.; Maxwell AFB, Ala.; Moody AFB, Ga.; Nellis AFB, Nev.; Patrick AFB, Fla.; Peterson AFB, Colo.; Robins AFB, Ga.; Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C.; Sheppard AFB, Texas; and Tinker AFB, Okla.