Higher Grounds Open House showcases improvements

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Zachary Hada
  • 28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. --  Airmen, superintendents, and squadron leaders were invited to attend an open house event held at the Higher Grounds Café, a social center for base dormitory residents run by the chaplain's office, July 31.

The open house showcased the café's new renovation, recognizing the hard work of the 28th Civil Engineer Squadron construction flight Airmen who completed the project.

"This was the first PRIME BEEF project for 2014," said 2nd Lt. Amela Kamencic, 28th Civil Engineer Squadron Environmental project manager. "We've renovated a total of 3,626 square feet, and only spent $30,000, which is $6,000 under what we expected."

PRIME Base Engineer Emergency Force is a rapidly deployable, specialized unit whose primary mission is to provide support for personnel and aircraft through capabilities such as establishing base camps and utility system installations.

Lt. Col. Nicholas Lynch, 28th CES commander and key speaker, said these Airmen did an incredible job and was pleased this project provided an opportunity to further improve construction skills.

Over the course of the seven-week project, 12,000 pounds of metal were removed to make space for new rooms such as a chaplain's office, a theater room, and a conference room for Active Airmen council meetings.

"We try to do Prime Beef projects every twelve months and the purpose of them is to serve as contingency training for our troops," said Kamencic. "These kinds of projects ensure our Airmen are capable of providing fully responsive engineering capabilities anytime."

"Ultimately, these improvements to the Higher Ground's facility will improve the quality of life for our dormitory Airmen," added Kamencic.