Posted on 09/27/2004 7:57:35 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
A crowd of dignitaries, including two congressmen, waited patiently Monday for a red, 6,000-pound wrecking ball to begin smashing a two-story building on Fort Bragg.
The crowd laughed nervously, but the crane operator, unable to get the ball swinging, could do no more than tap at the brick walls.
Finally, the crane backed off, and a track-hoe rumbled up and methodically began to break the building apart.
Roof, bricks and boards crashed down in clouds of dust as the track-hoe worked on the long building in the Nijmegen housing area on Rhine Road. The building had housed eight families.
The crowd included U.S. Reps. Robin Hayes and Mike McIntyre and Janet Bradbury, who was representing U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.
Some family housing on Fort Bragg is being destroyed to make way for new housing, which will be built by a private company.
The company, Picerne Military Housing of Warwick, R.I., plans to build 834 homes on Fort Bragg, replace 1,818 homes and renovate 1,993 homes over the next 10 years. This includes 209 historic homes in the Normandy and Bastogne Gables neighborhoods.
''For years and years, we've gotten by, we've just made do,'' said Col. Al Aycock, Fort Bragg's garrison commander. ''We've asked them (military families) to live in houses that we believe were substandard.''
Army officials say private companies can borrow money based on future receipts from soldiers' housing allowances and fix housing more quickly, compared with a year-by-year trickle of taxpayer dollars from Congress.
Work in progress
Since Fort Bragg turned over its family housing to Picerne on Aug. 1, 2003, more than 46,000 work orders have been completed, more than 200 families have been relocated to new or renovated homes and 35 houses in Casablanca/Anzio Acres neighborhoods have been renovated. Minor renovations have been done at 611 homes, and $11.6million has been spent locally.
Picerne will develop, build, maintain and manage the family housing at Fort Bragg for the next 50 years as part of the Army's privatization program.
John G. Picerne, the company's president, vowed to ''totally change the landscape as it pertains to family housing here at Fort Bragg.''
The building, known as an "eightplex," that is being demolishing was typical of some family housing on Fort Bragg that ''is old ... laden with problems ... irreparable ... and needed to come down fast,'' he said. The building for eight families will be replaced by a building for four families.
About 120 people work for Picerne at Fort Bragg.
Earlier in the day, Picerne and Fort Bragg and congressional officials broke ground for the first of 12 Neighborhood Centers.
''We are not just building houses, we are building communities,'' said William Armbruster, Army deputy assistant secretary for privatization and partnerships.
The Neighborhood Center is at Varsity Street and Pohl Place in the Ardennes neighborhood near Devers Elementary School.
''In that Neighborhood Center, our staff will be housed,'' Picerne said. ''They will be there ready to serve the families as they are in the temporary Neighborhood Center behind us.''
The complex will include a fitness center, gymnasium and swimming pool.
The sound of a bulldozer could be heard from the nearby Bataan neighborhood, which will be combined with the Ardennes neighborhood. A walking trail through the woods will connect the neighborhoods, he said.
Military editor Henry Cuningham can be reached at cuninghamh@fayettevillenc.com or 486-3585.
Mr. Bush, tear down substandard government departments.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.