Photo By Michael Nevins | Larry Gittings, a project manager for the Sacramento District of the U.S. Army Corps...... read more read more
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Larry Gittings, a project manager for the Sacramento District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is good at what he does. The modest, 57-year-old doesn't say that himself - his customers, though, don't hesitate to brag about him.
The Sacramento District project manager assigned to the Defense Commissary Agency Facility Improvement Program, Gittings has done an exceptional job in keeping everyone involved up-to-date on the status of their projects said John Thompson, manager of facilities & engineering for the DECA Western Regional Office located in McClellan Park, Calif.
Thompson was so impressed with Gittings' work, he recommended him to other regional offices. Now Gittings is working on more than 90 projects for DECA, totaling more than $18 million. All of the projects are operations and maintenance, or O&M projects, which range from repairs to flooring and roofing to expansions of storage areas and customer checkout lanes.
His desk is swarmed with project requests; his file cabinet is nearly filled beyond capacity with folders covering all the commissaries he has worked on, filed alphabetically by location. The only more dominant theme in his work space beside DECA is family. Dozens and dozens of pictures of his family grace his desk and are taped to his cabinets, many of them overlapping to the point of hiding the color of the cabinets.
Gittings has handled projects for commissaries on Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine and Coast Guard posts and bases from Hawaii to Texas. In the seven years since he began working with the DECA Western Regional Office, he's overseen the completion of more than 500 projects, and it doesn't appear he will be slowing down anytime soon.
Reasonable and quick service, said Gittings, is his goal, and overseeing so many projects keeps Gittings constantly on the move.
"Three out of four weeks I'm traveling," said Gittings. But he continues to do it for one important reason.
"Always take care of the customer," he says. "If you do that, more business will come your way."
Most project requests from DECA come in September, at the end of the fiscal year, Gittings said, with most of the contracts being awarded in the first quarter of the following fiscal year.
After he receives the request or Military Interdepartmental Purchase Request, Gittings takes it to the contracting office to draw up a contract. But his involvement doesn't end there.
"He'll get back to you, he's very responsive," said Gregory Tom, military construction contracting officer at the Sacramento District, discussing Gittings' involvement with getting the contracts.
As the contracting officer for military construction, Tom receives all the DECA requests from Gittings then assigns a contract specialist to work on it. If the contract specialist ever needs any additional information to complete the task, Gittings is more than happy to assist in every way possible to complete the contract, Tom said.
"He tries to meet our needs and everyone else's needs," Tom said.
Once the contract is awarded, Gittings oversees the project, ensuring the contractor completes the work and commissary facility managers are satisfied with the work. Once all this has been verified, the contractor is paid and the process begins all over again for Gittings at another commissary.
Gittings has worked as a project manager for the Corps since 1992. He served 12 years in the Air Force, both as an officer and an enlisted Airman prior to joining the Corps.
| Date Taken: | 11.23.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 11.27.2009 14:35 |
| Story ID: | 42079 |
| Location: | SACRAMENTO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 430 |
| Downloads: | 332 |
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