OCR Text |
Show ACTION LINEEXT. 77000. Cable service unreliable The cable service we have on base is very unreliable. It is constantly coins off whenever we get a wind of over 5 mph, and the price is also not competitive. I called TCI and asked them why they can't keep the cable on and also w hy we can't get Pay Per View here. They just tell me they don't have the technology to take care of it. We're paying $17 a month for a service that isn't reliable. Can't something be done about it? ft The cable TV problems you identified are not unique to Hill AFB; they are exUnforperienced by people both on and tunately, TCI has no control over cable outages caused by inclement weather. In an effort to help alleviate this problem, TCI's customers will be pleased to know that in 1992 TCI will be converting its regular cable lines to fiber optics. This means that if a cable outage is experienced with fiber optics, the outage will entail a much smaller proportion of customers experiencing the outage and it should occur less often. Until that time, TCI does grant a credit on your billing for cable TV when outages have been reported to them. You also expressed concern about not being able to purchase Pay Per View. This feature, which gives the customer the option to purchase the capability to view a special event e.g., a special sporting event will become available to subscribers this month. As far as the monthly fee for cable TV not being competitive, TCI was awarded its current franchise agreement because they submitted the best prices in response to a competitive solicitation. As a result they were awarded the franchise agreement for the next 10 years. TCI has become very active in assuring customer service over the past several years. It is TCI's policy to meet the cable television needs of every community it serves, including Hill. Any complaints about TCI cable services may be registered by calling If your is local TCI office, resolved not the problem by you are encouraged to contact the TCI ombudsman for the State of Utah, Dan McCarty, at in Salt Lake City. Difficulties in resolving problems should also be reported to the contracting officer at who administers the current franchise agreement. ii off-bas- e. 776-060- 777-244- 0. ' m ACTION; LINE is your opportunity to make Hill AFB a better place to liv e, uork and play. When you call Ext. 77000, or send f" 1 Minn- i, 1 I to ID "ACTION," your comments will be recorded LINE. I I C3 Moj. Gen. DaU W. Thompson Jr. Ogden ALC commander Kudos I have a kudos for Elizabeth Ciccone who works at the Family Support Center. She makes a great first impression for people coming into the Family Support Center and always deals with the people in a very professional manner. If you ask a question and she doesn't know the answer, she will always go out of her way to find the answer for you. She always has a smile in her voice as well as on her face and is a fine example of what family support services is all about, and that is helping people. Thank you very much. Thank you for taking the time to give recognition to a very important member of the staff at the Family Support Center. You are very correct, Ciccone does represent the center in a friendly, caring, and professional manner. Again, thanks for your kudos; I'm. sure it will make her day. Supervisors love to tell their staff members that they are doing a wonderful job and their efforts are being : recognized by the people they serve. 1, Outdoor adventures not for all I'm concerned about the outdoor adven-2tures that the Morale, Welfare and RecreZ ation Division plans. I've been at this base since June and this is the first base I've been where all of the activities are scheduled during the week. It seems to me that is biased towards the civilian fun-to-d- o community. I'm sure you're aware it is very seldom a military person gets off during the week. Is there some way this could be resolved? talked with the outdoor adventure program people and found that 26 trips were scheduled this year; only five were planned for a I weekday. of the trips are scheduled over weekends. These trips run from one to seven are day days in duration. The other trips which are scheduled around the longer weekend trips. Perhaps the trips you're most interested in were during the week. You may want to consider using your leave around these trips. Two-third- s one-thir- d Air turned off too early I'm curious as to why they turn off the air conditioning in the housing area so early. Our house was still very hot after the air conditioning was turned off. Would it be possible to leave the covers off until a little later in the year so we could at least use the fan? I realize when temperatures are in the 80s, it may seem premature to winterize swamp coolers but it is necessary. There are 795 coolers in base housing, and installing covers and draining water lines is a three- - to process which needed to be 21 in preparation for winter Oct. completed by four-wee- k weather. Leaving the covers off and having craftsmen return at a later date to install would not be an effective use of resources. Recently I attended the quality participation class, part of QP4, instructed by Capt. Judy Cowans and Dorlene Brooks, I would like to commend these two instructors for presenting this course in such an outstanding matter. Cowans' wit, humor and creativity contributed highly to the overall success of getting the message across. She is truly a special asset to the U.S. Air Force. The two do a great job and I would appreciate it if you would pass this commendation onto them. Your comments are appreciated and have been passed on to them. Thank you for tak- ing the time to express your appreciation. Is life H.Hfop Times 11 Railroad tracks trip bikers f Halfway between the base exchange and the first housing area there are some railroad tracks that go diagonally across the road. They are a real safety hazard. The problem is the front tire of a bicycle starts following the railroad tracks, which are diagonal. Your forward momentum is immediately transferred to diagonal cross momentum and the body doesn't go that way. I found this out when I went over my bike and landed on my shoulder, I understand this has happened to others also. I think this is a problem area that needs to addressed and fixed. Would it be possible to either make the track flush with the road or just get rid of the tracks entirely? 71 I'm sorry you had this type of accident on Jr base, and I hope that you are doing well. The pavement adjacent to the railroad tracks you mentioned had deteriorated. Add to this that the tracks are not perpendicular to traffic at this location, and it was difficult to cross the tracks safely. The base civil engineers completed a project in October to patch the pavement and fill in the gap between the tracks at one of these crossings. They will continue to make these repairs to similar crossings basewide. Hopefully, this will prevent future cycling accidents at railroad crossings. Regardless of the measures taken to reduce the danger associated with crossing railroad tracks, they are inherently more hazardous to traverse by cyclers than normal paved surfaces, so please be careful when crossing them. Where possible, railroad tracks should be crossed perpendicular to their direction of travel. If crossing in a perpendicular manner is not practical, a cyclist should stop and walk his or her bicycle across the tracks. In any case, railroad tracks should be crossed cautiously and at a slow speed. It is especially important that we instruct our children in the importance of exercising caution and safety when crossing railroad tracks, so that we may prevent future accidents of this type. V2 onlOGDISorOifkeYision and staffed through the agency responsible tor action. Please give your supervisor and chain of command the opportunity to work with you in answering questions and solving problems before calling ACTION LIME. This will help me better serve your interests through ACTION Nov. 15, 1991 insurance healthy? With the collapse of life insurance companies that we're hearing about in the news, what is the status of the life insurance companies that provide this service for federal employees? Are they solvent and is any monitoring or management accomplished to determine just exactly what their state of health is? The Federal Employee's Group Life Insurance is a group policy underwritten by a large number of private insurance companies. The responsibility for overall administration rests with the Office of Personnel Management. It is also OPM 's responsibility to receive, and deposit in the United States Treasury, all payments to the Employees Life Insurance Fund and to authorize payment of insurance premiums from the fund to the companies underwriting the insurance program. These two factors (the large number of companies involved in the underwriting, and OPM's involvement with fund administration) lessen the possibility of collapse or insolvency. Air Force Logistics Command officials indicate they are unaware of any problems and believe the overall health" of the companies to be good. TDY and frequent flyer points It concerns me that there is no formal Vx process or procedure for using or keeping track of the bonus miles, or mileage-plu- s prooffer. airlines the grams, The SATO office does not make any attempt to accrue those miles and it's illegal for an individual to use any of those bonus miles that can be used for upgrades and free trips. Why doesn't the government save some TDY dollars by taking advantage of those miles the airlines offer? If they don't want to use them, why don't they release them to the employee to use? I appreciate your comments regarding the Frequent Flyer Program. Participation in this program definitely reduces TDY expenses. However, in order for the Air Force to take advantage of this program, the following steps must be taken. When the traveler has accumulated sufficient mileage for a free ticket, heshe is notified by the airlines. Upon receipt of this notification, the traveler contacts the airline and obtains a free ticket. This ticket must be turned in to Travel Pay, Bldg. 1238, as a promotional item. Travel Pay gives the ticket to the Transportation Management Office, and they hold the ticket until the traveler is ready to travel again on official government business. When travel arrangements are made, the traveler advises TMO that heshe has a free ticket on file in their office. TMO then arranges for the traveler to use the ticket and travel is performed without additional cost to the government. Although this seems like a cumbersome way to handle the Frequent Flyer Program, it is the only way the government can take advantage of the program since the airlines do not provide the free ticket to Travel Pay or SATO. Please be aware that regulations prohibit personal use of airline mileage accumulated on official business. I hope this resolves your questions and I encourage you to continue to provide your frequent flyer tickets to the Travel Office to save our dwindling travel dollars. If you have further questions, please contact Shelley Jepperson, in the travel sub-uni-t, FMFFT, Ext. 75842. |