New U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground Garrison Manger hopes to keep the focus on Families

Photo By Ana Henderson | Ronny James is the new Garrison Manager at U.S. Army Garrison Yuma Proving Ground.  

YUMA PROVING GROUND, AZ, UNITED STATES

11.23.2020

Story by Ana Henderson 

U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground

Ronny James is the new Garrison Manager at U.S. Army Garrison Yuma Proving Ground (YPG).

But James is not new to YPG. In June 2019 he came to serve as Deputy Garrison Manager, and worked here 12 years ago as well.
The garrison manager position is similar to a city manager and has James overseeing the services provided to the YPG community such as the police, the fire department, operations, public works, MWR. He also interacts with YPG’s tenant units and the Yuma county and city governments.

James has a wealth of experience in installation management. He served as temporary Deputy Garrison Commander at various installations including Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Camp Red Cloud in South Korea. For the last eight months James has served as YPG’s Acting Garrison Manager on behalf of Gordon Rogers who retired earlier this year.

“It prepared me well and really gave me an opportunity to get my hands on being a garrison manager so maybe that’s what helped me be competitive for this position.”

Now officially in the position, James hopes to connect with the community to learn their needs. “I think there are a lot of great ideas out there and I am not sure we are capturing them.”

Community members can share their ideas and suggestions through the Interactive Customer Evaluation (ICE) program, which can be accessed through the YPG MWR public website. James says those comments are seen by a lot of management personnel and allows for leadership to act quickly. Examples of those would be a street light out or a menu item suggestion.

For more in depth situations that may require procedural changes, he suggests attending a resident town hall.

“It might be better in a town hall so we can talk to the person face to face and get their ideas and their thoughts and develop an idea from that.”

Recent examples of changes based on community feedback are the changes of hours of operation of the Post exchange and the commissary. The community gave their input on what worked best for them.
James remarks that the worldwide pandemic has made the focus on community even greater.

“We are out here by ourselves. COVID has really taught us that we need to look into YPG and take care of the community and help them stay out of places they might get infected with COVID. If we can keep them here, keep them entertained, keep them going to the commissary and PX then they are safer.”

James believes with the new leadership of YPG Commander Col. Patrick McFall and himself they can build a strong community.
“We are already a tight knit community so this will just bring us closer.”

• Date Taken: 11.23.2020
• Date Posted: 11.23.2020 14:34
• Story ID: 383570
• Location: YUMA PROVING GROUND, AZ, US