Eglin formalizes Community Partnership Program

  • Published
  • By Chrissy Cuttita
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  When the Air Force began its Community Partnership Program, Team Eglin immediately volunteered knowing first-hand the success of programs here with Okaloosa County.

To formally solidify the bonds already in place, base leadership and community counterparts signed memorandums of agreement Oct. 1 after a partnership presentation at Northwest Florida State College.

"With the sponsorship of the national Air Force leadership here, we were able to come together in a way to energize the idea formatting process, then cull down those ideas to executable time-based, mutually beneficial agreements," said Brig. Gen. David Harris, 96th Test Wing commander.

Since April, Eglin's six working groups have generated more than 30 ideas they will review for action. Once initiatives are defined in adequate detail, subject matter experts establish a viable way ahead.

The Air Force Community Partnership Program is a framework for the base and community to develop creative ways of leveraging their capabilities and resources to reduce costs or risks by finding shared value and benefit.

"It's just really exciting to see this. Okaloosa County has been a partner with Eglin for many years and we've done many projects together," said Nathan Boyles, Commissioner, District 3 of Okaloosa County. "This formalizes and builds upon what we have already done with our partnership."

The first three of many future agreements were signed at the meeting to show the partnership and intent to work together.  Declarations were signed for an artificial reef, reclaimed water and beach clean up initiatives.

Among the three initiatives, the existing program to reutilize excess concrete as reefs for the community's gulf shores will be expanded into a larger scaled base wide program to begin as early as Spring 2015. By reaching out to civil engineers and range management, the base has a potential to garner a larger variety of materials for an extended period of time.  Delivering the resource to the community saves Eglin $40 per ton in costs to remove the materials via a construction and demolition contract. The county will use a single contractor to remove the materials from the base, construct the artificial reefs, and place the reefs in the approved locations.

"We never had this top level interaction that really focuses in on the mutual benefit," said Boyles about moving from an ad hoc approach to address issues to a formal partnership. "In the future, this gives us a format, a roadmap to follow on these projects. It may even fast track some of these projects."

In addition to the initiatives put into formal agreement, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Gulf Coast Energy Network and Eglin for a base energy resource and innovative partnership.  This initiative will help Eglin reach its goal to reduce facility energy intensity 37.5 percent by fiscal year 2020 and increase electricity generated with renewables 25 percent by fiscal year 2025. In collaboration with the Economic Development Council of Okaloosa County, the base is developing partnerships with public or private entities in the areas of research, education, training and installation support for sustainable energy programs and energy conservation measures.

The goal of the Air Force program is to enhance mission viability and improve Airmen resiliency while implementing collaborative projects that provide mutual value to the Air Force, DOD, or federal government and local communities.

"It's so gratifying to me that we can come up with a solution that is mutually beneficial in six weeks," said Harris. "Great ideas were generated by folks, not at the general officer or mayor level, who were able to get those ideas brought to a condition they can be acted on by their senior leaders. We look forward to great strides and what other people will come up with in the future."