Visualizing Ellsworth's future

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Anania Tekurio
  • 28 Bomb Wing Public Affairs
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. --  The Urban Collaborative, LLC led a two-day vision training workshop at the Dakota's Club July 11 to guide base and community members in creating a vision statement for future developments at Ellsworth.

Airmen, base leadership, installation staff and community members attended the training workshop where they discussed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and constraints impacting infrastructure development throughout the installation.

"Our purpose is to teach and help organizations and agencies develop master plans for their installations," said Mark Gillem, TUC LLC principal.

Through a series of interactive, hands-on sessions, participants analyzed existing conditions at Ellsworth and evaluated current planning documents to create a development vision that incorporated the latest Department of Defense guidance.

"This is the first time that this type of training has been conducted at this base," said Larry Herges, 28th Civil Engineer Squadron architect. "I think it will be very beneficial to Ellsworth's growth."

To ensure the installation is well prepared to face future mission needs, participants concentrated their efforts on actual development planning concepts for Ellsworth.

"Once the vision statement has been created, we at The Urban Collaborative, LLC will take the information and results from the training and establish a guide focused on the base's decided vision," said Gillem. "It keeps the development process focused and on track."

The training launched the first update to Ellsworth's General Plan in nearly twenty years and will help position the installation to complete its update ahead of the DoD deadline of 2018.