After much anticipation, Town Center Terrace opens for occupancy! The ribbon cutting was held on Thursday, September 18, 2008, in front of one of the first completed buildings for single service members. Town Center Terrace is not only the first development of new apartment homes for single, senior, service members at Ft. Irwin, it is the first privatized unaccompanied personnel housing project constructed for the U.S. Army. Service members, new residents, senior leadership and the Clark/Pinnacle team enjoyed the affair. Refreshments and model tours completed the event.
This letter is to serve as an announcement that Ft. Irwin will be rolling out the utility billing program for all homes within The Villages at Ft. Irwin. In an effort to conserve energy and comply with the Department of Defense RCI Utility Policy/ The mock billing plan for all established homes will begin this summer.
Utility consumption reports (mock bills) will begin monitoring July 2008 and will begin being distributed to residents in the housing areas specified. You will receive a monthly, no-charge, utility statements that shows utility usage and includes conservation tips. The mock bills are a tool for comparison between the established benchmark and your actual consumption for electricity and liquid petroleum gas (LPG) for the individual housing types. However, please note that we are implementing a phased roll-out of the monitoring program, which means that not all homes will begin mock billing at the same time.
In 1996, Congress passed the Military Housing Privatization Initiative Act, which authorized the military services to privatize family housing and use Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) as a revenue stream for the funding of family housing revitalization projects. In September 1998, the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) issued a policy requiring service members in privatized housing to be responsible for the utilities they consume. As a result, DoD required the military services to establish policies to track usage and encourage conservation by making the user responsible for excessive energy consumption and give credit to those conserving.
Current Army policy requires that residents be responsible for any utility consumption above the established benchmark starting March 27, 2007. Once actual billing begins, residents who use less that the established benchmark will receive a rebate or a credit for their conservation. The Army's plan is that residents who use energy wisely will experience no out-of-pocket expenses.
Once billing has started, you will receive a monthly bill. Any dollar amount below $15 that is owed will be added to the next month's billing. In addition, any credit that is owed to the resident with the dollar amount below $15 will be credited to the next month's bill. If you have an amount owed over $15, it will be due that billing period and if you have a credit owed to you that is over $15, a check will be issued. Please contact your Pinnacle neighborhood office or 386-HOME (4663).
What you need to know:
- Mock billing will begin in different months depending on your village. Please see schedule below (numbers following village are address ranges):
July:
- Bitter Springs:................3901-3951
- Tiefort View:..................3800-3898
- Cactus Cove: ................1824-3106
- Calico Estates:................4041-5040
- Coyote Springs:..............3680-3752
August:
- Bitter Springs:................3952-4039
- Desert Winds:..................5043-5111
- Dove Gulch:....................5149-5198
September:
- Sage Brush (1990):.............5114-5239
- Sage Brush (hydronic):.........5242-5362
- Granite Canyon:................5240-5278
- Mojave:........................5281-5362
5401-5410
- Mock bill distribution to residents will begin in August 2008 - September 2008 according to the above schedule.
- Town Hall meeting scheduled for 21st and 22nd July, this is an addition to the Town Hall meeting we had June 17th and 18th.
- Actual billing will begin 7 months after the first month of mock billing. All of those villages rolling out mock billing in July will begin live billing in January 2009. Those that begin in August will go live in February 2009 and those starting mock billing in September will go live in March 2009.
- Those conserving will be eligible for the rebate.
CONSERVATION IS THE KEY!!!!!!
