Close-out adds $$$ for Vance facilities

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  • By 71st FTW Public Affairs
Vance Air Force Base, Okla. --  The clock ticking toward midnight Saturday found members of the 71st Comptroller Squadron wrapping up fiscal year 2006 by adding more than $8.5 million to the 71st Flying Training Wing's budget.
The majority of close-out funds, $6,101,100, were from the Air Education and Training Command for facility projects.
"Our goals going into the end of the year were to fund a new military working dog facility and a better teen center. We accomplished both those goals and a whole lot more," said Gene Gould, 71st CPTS financial analysis flight chief. "The biggest project funded was $1,985,100 for renovating the medical clinic."
Mr. Gould said other funded projects include a perimeter fence at Kegelman, a new life skills facility, door repair for Hangar 170, renovating and expanding Bldg. 751 (airfield systems) and erecting a perimeter fence around the land recently acquired for expanding base housing.
AETC also provided funding for critical items, such as $267,000 for mobility bags.
At the fiscal year's end, the wing also used internal funds for some projects including renovating Bldg. 455 for a new teen center, repairing the fire suppression system in the dorms and improving the exterior stairwells for the dorms.
The Defense Appropriation Act authorizes funds on an annual basis to be issued to the Department of Defense and distributed through the chain of command to Vance AFB.
"Vance uses its assigned funds to meet mission requirements and also builds a list of additional requirements if other funding dollars become available," Mr. Gould said. "Excess funds can become available because of changes in priorities or when programs are cancelled or postponed."
"I've been through seven closeouts at base level and three at MAJCOM-level--this was the smoothest of all," Maj. Dennis Hunt, 71st CPTS commander said. "We had all of the money spent by 9 p.m. Saturday then spent the rest of the evening waiting to see if additional funding would come to the wing."
The comptroller squadron commander said the smooth closeout was made possible because the wing had an excellent plan and enjoyed superb teamwork.
"While the comptroller squadron gets a lot of visibility this time of year, the contracting flight and Computer Sciences Corporation are equally invaluable to the purchasing process," Major Hunt said. "Everyone who identified a need and worked to get it on the unfunded list also played a major role in maximizing our financial resources during the last couple of days in the fiscal year."