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Show ACTION LINEEXT. 77000 900 numbers are a nuisance Every night this week on deferent phone numbers I have received telemarketers calls from a corona ry advertising free trip. Then they give a number to calL These calls are hitting the base telephones and are disturbing my work, and they are highly inappropriate. Can they be stopped? I can appreciate your concern and aggravation with these nuisance calls. We have contacted the telemarketing vendor and asked them to remove our telephone numbers from their computer tables. There is no technical way we can block these calls from coming in. M 4 Anyone on base who receives computer-generatetelemarketing calls should notify the 1881st Communications Computer Support trouble desk. Ext. 73741, and they will initiate action to contact the vendor. While we cannot block the mcming calls, we do have the technical capability to block outgoing calls, and the advertised 900 numbers cannot be dialed from a base extension. Thank you for your concern. d ACTION' LINE is your opportunity to make Hill AFB a better place to live, work and play. When you call Ext. 77000, or send on LOGD1S or OffkeViskm to ID "ACTION," your comments will be recorded and staffed through the agency responsible for action. Flease give your supervisor and chain of command the opportunity to work with you in answering questions and solving problems before calling ACTION LINE. This will help me better serve your interests through ACTION LINE. RIF affects morale Moj. was involved in the recent reduction in force, and is my fourth move in eight years, two by RIF. Each time I've had to move, the majority of the people in the new shop won't make the effort to say hello or welcome you to the crew. It makes me wonder if they realize that it is even harder for the new guys than it is for them, because we are new and trying to learn, while they are in a surrounding that is familiar to them. It isn't the new guy's fault that a few of their friends may have been moved. It would be to their advantage to make us more comfortable so that the work can carry on. I know this isn't an isolated incident. Most of the people in the RIF that I know are having the same problem. The division welcomes you, but the shop crew doesn't. Could you please give us a chance? QI One of the inevitable consequences of a reduction in force is the harmful effect it has on morale. Under such circumstances, emotions which would ordinarily be restrained, often to rise to the surface and manifest themselves in a variety of ways. Fortunately, this situation does not last long. There are some friendly and understanding people almost everywhere, even within your new organization, and I suspect that if you are friendly toward them, they will respond in kind. yi Ai Club served under-ag- e drinker girl who was drinking at the Officers' Club recently. The people at the door knew she was only 19 and still they let her drink at the club. I think it's wrong that she should be able to go in there and drink when she is under age. QI know a ld J4 Your concerns are also shared by the NCO Club. The allowable age for members and their guests is 18 and over. Everyone is checked and ID'd at the door, and those under 21 are allowed to enter but not allowed to consume alcoholic beverages. Surveillance for underage drinkers is ongoing by the night management, as well as the staff. The NCO Club needs and wants to solicit your support by letting the manager on duty know when you see a minor consume an alcoholic beverage so that prompt action can be taken as required. ot Library closure a disappointment can understand closing the library on Sunday I was really disappointed over the Memorial weekend when it was closed Saturday through MonDay does it have to be closed for such a long period day. Why of time? QI regret the inconvenience caused by closing the base library on Sundays and Mondays. The reduction of hours went into effect as a result of acute staff shortages, vacancies that cannot be filled due to the "freeze." The alternative was to limit services to opening the library doors and checking materials in and out eliminating the summer reading program, story hour, y reserved materials, loans, and more. Since for off scheduled the library staff are Sunday and days Monday, the Saturday prior to Memorial day was designated a holiday. Had the library been open, the staff would have earned holiday pay, which the base cannot afford in view of budget cutbacks. I inter-librar- Physical exams for children order for our physical exam is required in to go to camp, but appointments are filled so quickly it's very difficult to get an appointment prior to the date they need it. How do we go about getting a physical for our children so they can participate in the summer activities? 0A The hospital has historically provided physicals for children participating in summer activities. They are done by military providers volunteering their y time as the demand for appointments during normal duty hours exceeds the capability of the existing staff. As CHAMPUS will not pay for this type of physical, the partnership physicians in the hospital cannot be used. This year, physicals were done on June 12 and 15. If you have an activity which requires a physical for several individuals, you may contact the director of Patient Administration at Ext. 77906. Every effort will be made to clinic to take care of your needs. arrange an after-hour- s yi4 off-dut- ii'iniy Ogden DoU W. G. Thompson Jr. ALC jjjjMiw ii n iwii ' I inn nirmwMlu.wni! 's. JJy 3 1991 h.l.'-c- limes 11 Everyone needs to obey law can the security poLce dme faer than the QWhy limit hen they drive through Area C. but hen anyone else drives two miles over the they are pulled over and given a ticket? spt-e- Lmit M I would Lke to make it very clear that every one, and especially the security police, must abide by all traffic laws. However, in an emergency, the security police can exceed the speed limit. Because housing areas are densely populated with many pedestrians, security police must strictly enforce those speed limits. This is to ensure the safety of the housing occupants, particularly the children ho may not always pay attention to the traffic. If you see a security police vehicle violating traffic laws, call the law enforcement superintendent at Ext. 75550. He will conduct a thorough investigation and take appropriate action. K Jh I a Deduct for saving bonds Right now they allow only three allotments to be deducted from a check, and at the present time I have three allotments. I would like to have a savings bond, but I can't give up one of my other allotments. Is there any chance they will change it in the future so that four allotments can be taken from checks? Q commonder Kudos I would like to extend a kudos to Kitty Houlthous, who I feel is one of the best workers at the Hill AFB Commissary. She works behind the deli counter and greets everyone with a cheerful greeting and a big smile. She's always very helpful with questions about catering and things like that. I just really appreciate her special service and she really makes my day at the commissary. Thank you very much. The kudos for commissary deli employee Ms. Houlthous is very much appreciated She is an set to the Hill commissary. as- to extend a kudos to Lt. Col. Aaron Barson, who is a flight surgeon at U.S. Air Force Hospital, HilL He is always very warm in greeting his patients, especially the children. He is able to gain their confidence and help them overcome their apprehension by talking to them. When they leave, he always sends them off with a teaser joke and a piece of candy. I'd like to thank him for his personal touch with his patients. I would like Thank you for calling action line. It was with great pleasure 1 passed this on to Dr. Barson. He understands children are frightened when they come to see a doctor and does everything he can to put them at ease. Dr. Barson's "personal touch" reaches far beyond just seeing patients, he is a super individual Thank you again. I I would like to thank you for bringing this matter to my attention. There seems to be some misunderstanding regarding allotments, and it gives me an opportunity to clarify authorized deductions. The Treasury Financial Manual authorizes civilian employees to take two deductions from net pay for submission to financial organizations for credit to their savings accounts. Under these procedures, it is possible for an employee to authorize allotments of pay to two separate financial organizations and send his or her net paycheck to a third. In addition, the following deductions may also be deducted from your net pay. These deductions are not considered allotments: charity deductions for the Combined Federal Campaign, deduction for union dues, deductions for five U.S. Savings Bonds. These authorized deductions will permit you to buy savings bonds by allotment. Please contact Sidney Pennington in the Civilian Pay Office, Ext. 77775, if you have further questions regarding this matter, and she will be glad to assist you. Jr Why can't sick leave be donated? need sick leave and we would like to QWhen peopleout, why do we have to use annual leave? I have a lot of sick leave and it's not doing me any good because I'm not sick, but it sure could help someone else. There are some people in our building who could use some of my sick leave. I've donated quite a bit of annual leave, but I was just wondering why we can't give sick leave to people who need sick leave? Thank you for supporting your fellow base employees by donating your annual leave. The program whereby annual leave may be donated is the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program. When Public Law 100-56was passed in 1988 authorizLeave the Transfer Program, it was detering Voluntary mined that only annual leave would be donated. This r experimental program, administered by the Office of Personnel Management, expires Oct. 31, 1993. There is no delegated authority to change the program or allow donations of sick leave instead of annual. Although you may feel that your sick leave is of no use to you now, the day may come when you will be glad that you have it available. Not only is sick leave good insurance against major illness or injury, but since you are under the Civil Service Retirement System, unused sick leave will be credited to your length of service at retirement. While it does not count toward your eligibility for retirement, it does increase your service time for purposes of computing the monthly pension. If you have further questions regarding the leave transfer program, please contact the Entitlements and Benefits Unit at Ext. 76142. P Waste not the water were the sprinklers running full force at the when it was raining profusely? It seems to me that since we are in a high drought area where water is in meager supply at times, it is waste and abuse for the U.S. Air Force to look as if it is wasting a precious commodity like water. Can't they get someone to turn the timer off when it's raining? QWhy A You are absolutely correct about the water situa- - tion in this region and the need to conserve our precious resources. The base civil engineer has been working a water conservation program for several years now and has been quite successful in reducing water consumption during summer months. In addition, we have been working diligently to reduce the total amount of landscaped areas requiring irrigation and replacing grassed landscapes with attractive "drought tolerant" plants and materials that do not demand the attention or natural resources of more traditional landscaping concepts. The incident or incidents you witnessed at the museum facility were not a function of resource abuse on the part of the Air Force, but more a problem that occurred at a time when no one was occupying the facility. As you may be aware, the Hill AFB Museum is being built by the state of Utah for presentation to the Air Force. As a portion of this construction, specific areas around the facility were to be "hydroseeded" with a healthy mixture of selected grasses. This process requires that the mixture remain moist until germination occurs. If germination did not take place, the contractor was responsible, and he would have to replant at his own cost. As a result of this obligation, he had the automatic system on to protect his investment. Since the Air Force had not taken possession of the facility at the time, we had no personnel on site to monitor the sprinkling system. The using agency has since taken possession of the facility and will monitor the sprinklers. I should point out that in areas where the user physically has control of his sprinkling system, there may be times when sprinklers are operating during unforeseen periods of precipitation, particularly during non-dut- y hours, and should not be construed as the Air Force intentionally "wasting a precious commodity." Rest assured, we are painfully aware of the drought this region has experienced over the past few years and have taken remedial measures to help relieve the pressures on local water supply systems. Observations by conscientious individuals like yourself will go a long way toward assisting in this goal. 6 five-yea- Need better care in paper delivery much care is taken with the delivery of the Times to housing residents. It's just thrown wherever, and often we can't read the paper because it's soaking wet. Could we get a fix on this problem? QNot i The policy for delivery of Hilltop Times in base housing is for the paper to be delivered to your doorstep. Should wet weather be a problem, plastic bags are available to all delivery personnel, and you should receive a dry paper. People having problems with where their paper is delivered, or its condition, should call the Youth Center, who manages the paper delivery service. All |