KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Keesler leaders hosted an Air Force Community Partnership Program Priorities Workshop here Aug. 31.
The program is part of a larger Air Force Public-Public, Public-Private (P4) initiative to encourage installations and local communities to combine or improve resources or operating processes. Mississippi representatives from state and local communities and various civic leaders attended the event.
During the workshop, brainstorming teams briefed ideas to the leadership committee. A facilitation team guided a prioritization exercise to help the group select partnership ideas on which to focus their efforts. The unchosen ideas were recorded for consideration in future partnering efforts. After the priorities were agreed upon, the facilitation team helped establish a work group of local subject matter experts to conduct due diligence on their assigned partnership using AFCP provided references and resources.
One example of a Keesler Community Partnership idea that developed into a high interest topic was the firing range.
Sue Chamberlain, Base Operations Support community planner, brought up the need for a firing range that could be used by both reservists and the local law enforcement academy.
“There are reservists that come in on weekends that need to be qualified and armed,” she said. “We do have a firing range at Keesler, but when you have that many reservists come in for a short period of time, sometimes it gets a little bit crowded.”
Chamberlain mentioned the local law enforcement academy, a coordinated group with the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office, is in the process of developing enhanced facilities at the Harrison County Farm, which would include an outdoor firing range, possibly an indoor firing range, classroom, dorms and a dining facility.
“So, basically, the local law enforcement academy would be using this Monday through Friday,” she said. “Estimated time out is three to five years because it’s not constructed yet.”
Chamberlain also said the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport has been working on Joint Land Use Study, a collaborative study conducted by city and county officials, residents, and the military installation itself to identify compatible land uses and growth management guidelines near the installation. The process encourages the local community and installation to act as a team in order to prevent or curtail any encroachment issues caused by future mission expansion or local growth, according to the SeaBees Joint Land Use Study official website.
“We’d be working with a brother or sister agency to start with, and then we’d work with the community… a letter of support to the county followed by an agreement with the NCBC,” Chamberlain said.
During the discussion, the idea of using the National Guard’s firing range in the interim surfaced. Also, the Veterans Affairs’ interest in using the firing range for their police force was revealed. These additions brought the topic of the firing range up to an idea that would require a high level of effort with a high impact yield, making it number one on the priorities list.
“There was a lot of interest in that, not just from the military side but from the civilian side and from our community partners as well,” said Dr. Wayne Clark, 81st Mission Support Group deputy director.
Other Keesler Community Partnership ideas that made it to the top of the list included the metropolitan planning organization; a hurricane and ground evacuation partnership agreement; drones response; education and training crossflow; Keesler redevelopment; food for the homeless; bike shares; and volunteerism.
“These were all fantastic ideas; it was a really good discussion,” said Col. Debra Lovette, 81st Training Wing commander. “We’re going to focus some efforts in beginning on some of these really relevant ideas. We used things that could enhance readiness for both us and the community. We looked at things that are sustainment projects that would benefit both of us. We looked at ways that we could (benefit mutually.)”
Keesler Air Force Base wants to contribute as much as it can to the community, just as the community wants to contribute to what we do here at Keesler, the commander said.
“You may find while you’re working through these projects that there are a lot of other aspects to them than we initially realized; embrace that because this is all goodness,” Lovette said. “So if there are new ways of doing things, new partnerships that seem to come up as a result of working through these, then we’re looking forward to putting those together and making the most use out of them for all of us at Keesler and the local community.”
The Keesler Community Partnership members are scheduled to meet again for an Agreements Workshop Oct. 24 to 25.
Since October 2012, the Air Force’s AFCP program generated more than 1,000 initiatives and 250 agreements that generated $32 million in Air Force benefits and $24 million in community benefits.