BALTIMORE -
Mold covers pipes and grows from walls, while
pipes leak and paint peels from 1950s-era barracks housing service members
stationed at
Fort Meade.
“One way to look at barracks is if you would
let your children live there,” said Marine
Maj. Danny Chung,
commanding officer of 130 Marines at Fort Meade.
“I wouldn’t let mine live here.”
More than 300 service members from the four
military branches attending the
Defense Information School live in
barracks in need of repair, said Col.
Kenneth McCreedy, Meade’s commanding officer.
“Because of the growing needs of the military
... money for these improvement projects were” deferred for years, McCreedy
said.
The concern over the barracks came after an
Army soldier’s father videotaped the poor conditions of his son’s barracks at
Fort Bragg,
N.C., and released it to the public.
As a result, the Army has examined its
barracks worldwide for similar problems.
McCreedy gave The Examiner a tour of four
barracks, from the newest built in 2003 to the barracks in the worst
conditions, including the one housing the Air Force students in the Defense
Information School, the military’s journalism school.
Tech.
Sgt. Keith Choate
showed mold on a wall separating the main corridor and the bathrooms that
resulted from deteriorated shower pans leaking.
“Some don’t spend enough time here to care
about it, but others have expressed concerns about living with mold,” Choate
said.
The
Marine Corps barracks are also in poor
condition with mold growing around overhead pipes; one room called the “Mold
Room” is uninhabitable, because mold continues to grow despite efforts to curb
it.
The Army’s barracks are in better shape after
renovations the previous year. Before that, its conditions were the worst on
the fort, McCreedy said.
The barracks were built in the 1950s and have
leaky pipes and moisture problems that cause mold. They need modern piping and
HVAC systems, officials said. More than $50 million is slated for improvements
at the four barracks.
Inspectors were on site Monday to determine
the damage and potential health risks.
But if the barracks have to close immediately,
not enough space to house the displaced service members would be available, and
the fort would have to shuffle people around and lease space, McCreedy said.
The hope is that two empty barracks being
renovated will be ready by July 2009 for service members.
“We can’t do everything at once, and we’d have
to play musical chairs,” McCreedy said.
http://www.examiner.com/a-1376730~Moldy__leaky_conditions_plague_Fort_Meade_barracks.html
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