FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Fairchild’s military housing office and privatized housing company, Balfour Beatty Communities, hosted a Resident Council meeting, Sept. 21, 2020.
This meeting gave Airmen and their families and avenue to discuss freely about their housing concerns with base leadership and the base privatized housing organization managers.
“The whole reason behind the council is to give residents a clear line of communication to the wing commander for any concerns they have,” said Dan North, Fairchild’s privatized housing resident advocate. “The council also is designed to put up those lines of communication with the military housing office and the Balfour Beatty.”
Additionally, this program allows base leadership the opportunity to elevate Airmen concerns to higher levels of Air Force leadership; which may bring about changes within the privatized housing community, not just at Fairchild, but potentially across the Air Force’s installations housing communities.
“The reason we have this council is because we can’t wait for the Chief of Staff of the Air Force to come up with something or the concerns,” Col. Cassius Bentley, 92nd Air Refueling Wing commander. “This council allows us to discuss those concerns to bring up and address.”
During the meeting, a member of the council presented concerns with the bus stops on Fairchild not having appropriate coverage for the school-aged children and wanted to know what base leadership could do to address those families with school bus transportation concerns.
During the meeting, Bentley responded to these concerns saying, “That’s a good point, that’s something we can look into, consolidating certain bus stops and adding appropriate coverings for those bus stops. I never thought about something like that until you brought it up.”
For those Airmen who live in the privatized housing community on base and are interested in joining the resident Council Meeting, contact Dan North at (509) 247-9222.