Courtesy Photo | Col. Kimberly O’Keefe, installations division chief at the National Guard Bureau,...... read more read more
AUGUSTA, Maine - The Maine Army National Guard’s Department of Facilities and Engineering was recently recognized with the National Guard Bureau’s Fred Aron Award for Excellence in Facilities Programs for being the best in the nation.
Col. Kimberly O’Keefe, the National Guard Installations Division Chief, presented the trophy to Lt. Col. Gregory Leimbach, director, and facilities engineers for the Maine Army National Guard, at the Construction and Facilities Management Officer Program Management training at the Professional Education Center, North Little Rock, Ark., Feb. 4, 2014.
The DFE provides the assets required to manage all of the Maine Army National Guard properties and facilities. They provide support, maintain and fix existing buildings, perform maintenance to the grounds, oversee leases and rental agreements, and acquire new property when needed.
Each state and territory is measured in eight performance areas, including military construction program execution, financial management, budget estimates and energy management programs. This award comes at the conclusion of a review from subject matter experts based on information from the 2012 fiscal year. That year, Maine continued the Regional Training Institute in Bangor, and finalized planning for two new armories.
“This is not just an award for any one individual,” said Leimbach. “This goes to show how the directorate functions together like a team. This award not only shows the effectiveness of the relationships we have build, but also the quality of our work.”
Leimbach said it is a great honor for a small state with limited resources to win an award like this. It is not only the first time the state has won the national level award, but also the first time they have won at the regional level.
“I think we have gotten a lot better at managing resources,” he said. “That’s what it all comes down to, managing resources, when you look at the criteria. It is not something we apply for, it is something NGB evaluates how each state performs in all 54 territories.
Looking at current plans for overall troop reductions, and impeding military budget cuts, Leimbach said the future of the Military Construction program funding indicates that there will be less resources than in the past 10 years.
“We won’t be building new facilities as often, so maintenance and sustainment of all existing facilities will be even more important,” said Leimbach. “Our long range construction plan programs funding for 5-25 years out. The projected decrease in funding means that instead of receiving funding every two years, we can anticipate receiving funding for new construction every five years.”
Lt. Col. Raymon Hoeflein, the Strategic Plans and Education Branch Chief Installations Division, for National Guard Bureau said that the accuracy, effectiveness and timeliness of submissions are considered, as well as prudent execution of federal funding in program execution.
“The award is given to the state with the best overall performance among the 50 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia,” said Hoeflein. “Maine won the region award for being the best in the region, and the Fred Aron Award for being the top program overall.”
Leimbach said that he couldn’t be more proud of the team he has in place.
“I couldn’t do this without the awesome state employees we have,” he said. “They provide a sense of continuity and continue to be the subject matter experts in all of our areas. They have all taken it in stride; there is a great work ethic here. They make me proud to come into work every day. This, being the director here, is the best job I have ever had, working around such high performing people.”
| Date Taken: | 03.01.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 03.05.2014 11:45 |
| Story ID: | 121529 |
| Location: | AUGUSTA, ME, US |
| Hometown: | AUGUSTA, ME, US |
| Web Views: | 352 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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