By SARA GREENE
Leader staff writer
A pair of new projects next year are aimed at helping improve the working and non-working environment at Little Rock Air Force Base.
The base will be receiving $6.4 million next year for an improved dining facility to replace the existing facility, which is aged and undersized. The new dining facility will also house a community center mailroom.
The base will also get $2.5 million to add an additional runway to the All-American Landing Zone at Camp Robinson.
“We land C-130s at Camp Robinson to give pilots practice for landing on unimproved landing areas,” said Lt. Jon Quinlan, chief of media relations for the 314th Airlift Wing.
“With cooperation with the Army Corps of Engineers, we have 100 percent of the taxiway design completed.
“We anticipate that after the contract is awarded, we’ll begin construction in early summer of 2006,” Quinlan said.
Construction for the new dining facility, to be located near the dorms, is expected to begin in the fall of 2006.
“We are committed to providing quality facilities for our airmen to live, work and play in,” Quinlan said.
The money for the projects is part of the 2006 Military Con-struction Bill passed by Congress.
The two projects for the air base are part of $20.5 million for Ark-ansas defense projects.
Of that, $5.6 million was designated for construction of the Regional Institute Training Com-plex at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock.
The National Guard Armory in Searcy is set to receive $186,000 for planning and design for the Combined Support Maintenance Shop, and the Veterans Medical Center in Fayetteville is to get $5.8 million to begin construction on an addition to the facility.
