Fort McCoy and Monroe County, Wis., officials signed the first Intergovernmental Support Agreement (IGSA) between the parties on December 26, 2019 at Fort McCoy. The IGSA is for light detection and classification and air photographs. The agreement will last 10 years from the date of signing. This is the first agreement from the army community partnership Kick-off and Needs and Capacity Conference, held in Fort McCoy in April 2019. Representatives from the Fort McCoy Garrison, tenant organizations, and government and local authorities attended the conference. „The conference helped identify Fort McCoy requirements and community requirements and identified new and existing partnerships and opportunities,“ said Liane Haun, Director of the Public Works Branch. At the end of the first conference, an IGSA workshop was held in July 2019 to poach partnership concepts and prioritize partnership initiatives. „As soon as the concept was acceptable to Monroe County and Fort McCoy to both parties, IGSA was forwarded to the Facility Management Command, where it was approved in October for final staffing,“ Haun said. The April conference was the launch of the Army Community Partnership Program in Fort McCoy, which uses the strength of the federal government, the federal states and municipalities to create partnerships that improve efficiency and achieve cost savings. According to the Office of the Deputy Chief of the Army Staff, the G-9, the leading service organization for the Army Community Partnership Program, the goal of the program is to transform army installation services through a variety of partnership opportunities. „Partnership agreements with public and local municipalities form the basis for effective and cost-effective delivery of services that can benefit both organizations without the complexity of traditional contracting practices,“ said Maureen Richardson, Director of Resource Management and the Fort McCoy IGSA Program.
„The program is putting another tool in the toolbox that allows the Ministry of Defence (DOD) facilities to operate at a reduced cost.“ Richardson said many other military bases had already partnered with their surrounding communities. „There are endless creative solutions in these partnerships,“ Richardson said. „We also want to introduce them into our communities.“ Signing the partnership agreement itself on December 26 is the final step toward strengthening the IGSA between Fort McCoy and Monroe County, Haun said. „Monroe County is already taking aerial photographs for all townships and had asked Fort McCoy if there was any chance of working together to have the overflight time done at the same time,“ she said. The cost to Monroe County of completing aerial photographs is much lower than what Fort McCoy paid with other funds. „Now that we have the partnership agreement, Monroe County can include Fort McCoy in its airover in the spring of 2020, and Fort McCoy has signed an agreement to pay for the services provided,“ Haun said. Fort McCoy Garrison Commander Col. Hui Chae Kim and Monroe County Administrator Tina Osterberg signed the agreement. More IGSAs are expected to be concluded as a result of more partnerships, Haun said. „We look forward to working with Monroe County and hope it will be the first of many other partnerships,“ Richardson said. „Ideally, Fort McCoy and the leaders of Sparta and Tomah will be waiting for us with good ideas that they would like to try, that can serve us all together.
We have started working groups in various areas of Fort McCoy, including emergency services and human relations. These are win-win opportunities that are very strong at the military, DOD and congressional levels. All IGSas for Fort McCoy are coordinated by Fort McCoy Resource Management Office.
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