By Melissa Buckley, Fort Leonard Wood Public Affairs Office
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (April 3, 2024) — Fort Leonard Wood’s newly elected community mayors were introduced at the quarterly housing town hall March 26 at Stonegate Community Center.
According to Mike Estright, Directorate of Public Works Housing Division chief, this year’s neighborhood representatives are Sarah Saalmann for Eagle Point, Staff Sgt. Joshua Meyers for North Stonegate, Staff Sgt. Joey Corrao for South Stonegate, Angela Chrisman for Piney Hills, Lt. Col. Mollie Kedney for Piney Estates and 1st Sgt. Brian Wimer for Woodlands.
To open the town hall, Col. Anthony Pollio, U.S. Army Garrison Fort Leonard Wood commander, recognized the outgoing mayors, then welcomed the new ones.
“Our mayors are volunteers, and we greatly appreciate them stepping up. They provide a very vital role for us to be able to tie-in to our communities and make sure we are addressing the concerns of all our residents,” Pollio said. “We meet with the mayors every month to get their feedback to identify what issues we need to address in their communities. We then work together to address those issues and make improvements.”
During his housing update, Pollio said garrison leadership is working on getting funding for improvements to existing homes and playgrounds and building new homes.
“We are currently looking at how many new homes we could build and how many major renovations we can do,” Pollio said.
Pollio thanked residents for helping Fort Leonard Wood get all the on-post homes inspected as part of the mandatory third-party inspections of all privatized housing that began in February.
“The Army and Congress are using the inspection results to determine the quality of homes on all installations,” Pollio said. “When it comes time to allocate resources, they will know the quality of our homes, and this will allow us to compete for additional resources.”
Pollio also encouraged residents to fill out the Army housing tenant satisfaction survey being collected through April 18. He said residents should have received a link to the survey in an email from a third-party company called CEL & Associates.
“We ask that you fill out the survey because this is another way the Army grades the quality of housing on the installation,” Pollio said. “If you have a good experience or a bad experience, put it in there. Please try to focus on the issues and be professional.”
During his housing maintenance update, Ron Hestness, a facility director with Balfour Beatty Communities — Fort Leonard Wood’s housing partner — said mowing services are scheduled to start April 1.
“They are starting on a bi-weekly schedule,” Hestness said. “On April 15, the weekly mowing service will begin.”
Hestness said there is a program for residents who want to mow their own yards as well.
“You can sign up in the community center to mow your own yard,” he said. “You will get a sign for your yard, and I will add your address to the do not mow spreadsheet.”
The next item of discussion was Missouri’s weather.
“We have a long and hot air conditioning season. The recommended temperature for homes in the summer is 72 to 75 degrees,” Hestness said.
He also read tips to the group, which included:
- Thermostats should always be set to the auto setting, not on.
- If a home has one thermostat, open vents upstairs and close vents downstairs on warm days; the opposite on cooler days.
- Dust HVAC vents weekly to optimize performance.
- Change heating and cooling system filters routinely, especially if there are pets in the home. Filters are available at no cost to residents in the maintenance office.
- Keep interior doors open and all vents clear.
- Call maintenance immediately upon discovering no heat, no cooling, no water, a frozen pipe or leak.
“You can also get air filters for your homes, for free, from the community centers,” Hestness added.
He said with warmer weather, pests are going to be on the move and to use the maintenance request phone line for pest control work orders by calling 573.329.4000.
Jason Williams, BBC’s operations director of Fort Leonard Wood homes, said he has two new employees; one is being trained to manage the reception desk.
“We are fully staffed in the leasing office, but Ron has some openings in the maintenance department,” Williams said.
Contact information for BBC can be found at https://www.fortleonardwoodhomes.com. More information on the Directorate of Public Works Army Housing Office is available at https://home.army.mil/wood/Garrison/dpw/housing.
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About Fort Leonard Wood
Fort Leonard Wood is a thriving and prosperous installation that has evolved from a small basic training post 80 years ago to a premier Army Center of Excellence that trains nearly 80,000 military and civilians each year.
Fort Leonard Wood is home to the U.S Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and three U.S. Army schools: the U.S. Army Engineer School; U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School; and the U.S. Army Military Police School. In addition to training engineer, CBRN and military police specialties for the Army, Fort Leonard Wood also provides gender-integrated in-processing and Basic Combat Training for new Soldiers.
Fort Leonard Wood also hosts and trains with the largest Marine Corps Detachment and Air Force Squadron on any Army installation as well as a large Navy construction detachment.