Marine Corps Installations Partnership Program Urges Communities and Bases to Find Common Ground on Similar Services

Photo By Sgt. Juan Madrigal | Brig. Gen. Thomas Weidley speaks with Richard Spruill about the community during the Marine Corps Installations Partnership Program at the City of Jacksonville Department of Public Safety complex in Jacksonville, N.C., Feb. 8, 2017. The vision of the program is to initiate and develop mutually beneficial partnerships between local commands and their communities in order to reduce operating costs, diminish risks, and enhance community relationships. Weidley is the commanding general for Marine Corps Installations East - Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, and Spruill is the president of Ground Water Management Associations, Inc.  

JACKSONVILLE, NC, UNITED STATES

02.08.2017

Story by Lance Cpl. Juan Madrigal  

Marine Corps Installations East       

The Marine Corps Installations Partnership Program invited local leaders to discuss what can be done to improve the community, at the Jacksonville Department of Public Safety complex in Jacksonville, Feb. 8.

The program’s initiative is to develop mutually beneficial relationships between local commands and the community.

The meeting started with a brief about how the community could improve. Community leaders then individually stood and introduced themselves. The local leaders stated their needs along with what they could contribute to the community.

"If you talk to anybody that has been a resident either working on the base or a resident for the last few years, this is something that’s surrounded by a lot of excitement," said Col. Michael Scalise, deputy commander for Marine Corps Installations East – Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. "We’ve had any number of partner service agreements that have existed for years, but they’ve never come together as one group. Here’s an opportunity to either refine existing memorandums of understanding or create complete new ones."

The program is trying to create a collaborative environment where the community and base can find ways to share their manpower and materials.

"In this meeting we have needs and capacities," said Charles Lubeshkoff, Marine Corps Installations Partnership Program facilitator. "The beautiful thing about that is often there’s the old concept that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, but this is a more elevated world where sometimes people have excess things, equipment, materials, knowledge and the other party needs it. This often is created from the difference in budget drawdowns, hiring freezes, etc."

There are several aspects of the community that were talked about, which could benefit from the program.

"We have three separate 911 centers, and they all work independently, but we want to bring that together for a number of reasons," said Mike Yaniero, chief of police for Jacksonville. "We’re one community, what happens here in the city affects what happens on the base, what happens on the base, affects what happens in the city. Better coordination of those emergency resources are going to be very important as we move with the challenges that emergency services face."

This meeting was the 2nd phase of the Marine Corps Partnership Program, and base and community leaders plan to meet again March 29 to continue working on ways to improve the community.

• Date Taken: 02.08.2017
• Date Posted: 04.24.2017 20:42
• Story ID: 223751
• Location: JACKSONVILLE, NC, US