News

New standards improve quality of life in Dover's dorms

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman James Bolinger
  • 436th AW Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  When one first walks into a squeaky clean hotel room he or she can feel at home. Hotel owners ensure each room has a freshly made bed, vacuumed floors, clean bathroom and dusted furniture. Dover's dorm managers are striving to meet a similar standard in a new initiative to provide a sense of home when an Airman joins Team Dover from technical school.

"We want to provide a good first impression for new Airmen, because their room is one of the first things they are going to see," said Tech. Sgt. Richard Ortega, Dorm 435 manager.

The new standards for an incoming Airman's room include: spackled and painted walls, premade beds and every five years carpet is replaced.

The most important new standard is a freshly painted room. In 2007, dorm rooms were repainted by contractors, and due to funding, dorm managers could only afford to have a few rooms painted. This meant if the room's walls didn't have a gaping hole or paint degradation, then repainting was out of the question.

In January, dorm managers decided to move to a self-help painting process. This meant that the room's prior occupant had to spackle and paint the walls before they could out process the dorm. The rooms with holes too large for spackle or with severe paint degradation are still handled by contractors but the number or rooms damaged badly is small and doesn't over top the budget.

"When residents get ready to move off base we sign out a spackle kit to them," said Sergeant Ortega. "The Airman spackles and sands (his or her) own walls and the dorm manager inspects the work for quality. Once the room has been spackled we sign out paint supplies; a bucket of paint, rollers, brushes and a paint pan. The Airmen don't have to pay for any of it.

"We cover the cost of supplies, all the Airmen have to do is supply the time," he said. "And, they can't out process till the dorm manager says the work is complete."

Besides making new Dover Team members feel welcome, Sergeant Ortega hopes that a fresh room will instill a sense of pride.

"When you live in a nice house it is a stress reliever," he said. "You don't get off work, walk into your room and get depressed after a long day at work. We hope that Airmen realize the dorm is their home and they should take care of it. If they know that they have to leave the room in the same way it looked when they moved in, they may be more inclined to keep it clean."

It was nice to walk into a clean room, said Airman 1st Class Chelsea Yingling, 436th Mission Support Squadron, when she arrived at Dover July 6.

"The bed was made and the room was pretty clean," she said. "Even the refrigerator was clean, I expected it to be moldy or have old food inside."

While dorm managers can only ensure rooms are painted and clean, and beds are made before new Airmen arrive, they are encouraging squadron sponsors to go the extra mile.

"Some squadrons go so far as to place welcome items in a person's room, and some sponsors have even stocked their new Airman's refrigerator with basic snack items and bottled water," said Sergeant Ortega. "We hope this new initiative will increase Airmen's pride and respect for their home."