JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas –
Feedback Fridays is a weekly forum that aims to connect the 502d Air Base Wing with members of the Joint Base San Antonio community. Questions are collected during commander’s calls, town hall meetings and throughout the week.
If you have a question or concern, please send an email to jbsapublicaffairs@gmail.com using the subject line “Feedback Fridays.” Questions will be further researched and published as information becomes available.
Q. I respectfully request your attention to a well-visited place, the Airmen’s Heritage Park at JBSA-Randolph. While my family and I enjoy being outdoors in that area, I dread going to the restroom in building 139. I noticed the building has been ignored since the start of the pandemic.
While I try to stay healthy, it’s hard to see a place not in the best serviceable, clean and neat condition.
I cannot speak for the female restroom but just as you enter the men’s restroom, you can see a water fountain that is always filthy, leaking and in desperate need of repair. The urinal/commode itself is clean. All around it is malodorous and dirty. The commode is in disrepair, needing a new toilet seat, and one of the two faucets is unusable.
If one of our goals is to keep our population healthy, why can’t we pay attention to this facility? Our families need your help to keep us all in better health. We appreciate your much-needed attention. Thank you very much.
A. Thank you for bringing this problem to our attention. Our Civil Engineering team responded and fixed the plumbing leaks and is directing the custodial service to improve the cleaning response. They have also contacted the facility manager and provided information to help change out broken dispensers.
Q. I was under the impression that masks were required on base and would like some clarification.
I have been to the Travel Management Office and Commercial Travel Office at JBSA-Lackland twice in the past few weeks as we are preparing to make our last and final retirement move. I have to go again soon for a mandatory briefing.
Both times I have been in, the staff is not wearing masks when behind the counters unless they are directly talking to customers. I understand close contact is a huge factor in the transmission of COVID-19, with aerosolized particles and airflow in rooms a factor as well.
If they are behind the counter talking, breathing, sneezing, etc., the particles are still reaching other staff and customers.
As an immunocompromised customer that has no choice but to visit this office, I feel unsafe and like my health is more at risk than necessary. Has the mask mandate been lifted?
A. Thank you for the opportunity to address this very timely issue. In accordance with 502d ABW Guidance Memorandum No. 23, personnel at JBSA are required to wear face coverings in common areas where social distancing is not possible.
The desks in the Travel Management Center of the TMO/CTO are spaced sufficiently from each other so the employees are able to socially distance from one another and their customers. When employees go to the counter to wait on customers, they wear appropriate face coverings in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Public Health Emergency Officer guidance.
Clear plastic barriers have also been installed at the customer service counters in these work areas to protect the employees and their customers.
Q. Why can’t the JBSA Legacy newspaper be folded in half? The first half is offset by an inch which makes some of the second-half articles harder to read.
A. Thank you for the question! According to the newspaper’s publisher, they need a 3/4-offset fold that they put on the paper for the inserting machines that insert the various flyers and sale papers.
After they print, these papers go through a machine that will grab the paper on this offset space. Once it grabs this offset space the paper opens up and the inserts fall inside. Without the offset, the machine will grab the entire paper thus not opening up and no inserts will fall inside.
The sale of advertising in the JBSA Legacy ensures that the newspaper is of no cost to the U.S. Air Force.