Part-time military members, not just full-timers, will be allowed to move into the new housing on Columbus Air Force Base after it opens in October.
Until now, housing at the base, which dated back to the 1950s, was reserved for full-time, active-duty Air Force personnel and their families.
According to its contract with the base, the privatized military housing company Pinnacle will permit active-duty enlisted members of the military of all grades and officers up to the rank of colonel to move in to some of the new housing units, Senior Airman James Corbin of CAFB Public Affairs.
“If Pinnacle Housing is unable to fill the base housing with active duty members up to a certain percent, it is then opened to reserve and guard members. If that still does not fill, they have the option to open to civil service members and then retired personnel,” Corbin wrote.
Pinnacle has torn down houses in the base”s Magnolia Village and replaced them with new ones. The company also has been renovating houses in Capital Village and State Village, Corbin said this morning.
Some of the houses will be duplexes, while others will be for single families. Square footage and numbers of rooms will vary. But they will all be part of the same complex: The Landings at Columbus.
Although the new and renovated houses are scheduled to open in October, people already are occupying some of the units.
“The house is beautiful, very nice,” said 2nd Lt. Adam Irvin of the 14th Medical Group. He, his wife, Kelly, and their daughter, Elizabeth, were the first family to receive keys to a unit.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new housing, which took place on May 20, CAFB Col. Roger Watkins said, We are excited to partner with Pinnacle and we are excited our airmen are the beneficiaries of that partnership. We did this to make life better for our airmen.”
This story contains reporting from Dispatch Reporter Neal Wagner.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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