Fort Stewart Army Housing Office and its privatized partner, Balfour Beatty Communities, along with installation leaders hosted a quarterly town hall June 25 at Southern Oaks Community Center.
Although the meeting took place in the heart of one of the installation’s neighborhoods, turnout still didn’t meet expectations with only two attendees.
Col. Gabe Weaver, Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield garrison commander,addressed the low attendance.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to fix this,” Weaver said.
After thanking everyone for coming, he handed it over to Jeff Bergeron, emergency contingency planning officer with the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Safety, to discuss preparations for hurricane season.
He advised people to follow the installation’s social media accounts, download the My Army Post app, and informed them on how evacuations work during severe weather.
John Klein, Fort Stewart Army Housing Office director, brought the importance of window safety especially in taller buildings and that if someone sees dangerous behavior, they should notify the police.
This prompted Frarene Camacho, Southern Oaks community neighbor, to ask if BBC had child locks and additional safety precautions available to be installed. They let her know that they do upon request.
Klein also notified the community that a portion of the installations’ housing inventory is going to be inspected by a third-party company which is mandated by an Army directive.
“When they come down initially, they are going to go through about 150 vacant units on Fort Stewart,” he said. “It won’t impact any families other than they will see contractors in the housing area.”
When the dates are confirmed, residents will receive messages from Fort Stewart and BBC.
“Then they will circle back to inspect about 1,600 occupied units on Stewart and another 400 units on Hunter Army Airfield,” Klein said.
The meeting closed with Weaver thanking everyone for taking the time out of their day to participate and to reach out for improvements.
If you have an idea on how to improve attendance, please reach out to fshaafmilitaryhousingoffice@gmail.com.