Job cuts at Carson: Soldiers to cut grass, haul trash

Fort Carson soldiers who are between trips to the battlefield will likely inherit a new peacetime mission: Cutting grass and hauling trash.

The post said Tuesday it will call on soldiers to start doing new chores to blunt the impact of a proposed 20 percent cut to Fort Carson’s 2010 operating budget.

The other potential loser in the budget crunch: Civilian contract workers who do maintenance, grounds keeping, food service and other tasks, such as making sure the firing ranges are in shape for soldiers preparing to deploy.

It was unclear Tuesday night how many civilian jobs are on the chopping block. Each contractor will be given an idea of how their contracts will shrink, and they must determine how to trim staff to meet that goal, post officials said.

“It’s up to the individual contractors to determine how they are going to service their contracts,” said Dee McNutt, a Fort Carson spokeswoman. She couldn’t say how many contract employees work on post.

Although Fort Carson didn’t release budgetary figures, Col. Robert McLaughlin, the garrison commander, said he was told to make do with 20 percent less funding for operational expenses under an Army-wide budget reduction designed to reign in non-war spending.

The Associated Press reported this week that budgets to run Fort Campbell, Ky., and Fort Stewart, Ga., could be trimmed by as much as 40 percent. For Fort Campbell, that would mean last year’s $177.5 million budget would shrink to $106.5 million, the AP said.

Fort Carson commanders want to preserve funding for programs that keep soldiers healthy and combat-ready and help their families deal with the stress of repeated deployments, McLaughlin said.  That calls for cutting contract services and relying on in-house labor — the soldiers — when it comes to grunt work like mowing lawns and hauling garbage to collection points.

Other cost-cutting measures may include closing a dining facility, trimming hours at some administrative offices and reducing funding for the post’s fleet of vehicles, some of which are assigned to commanders, he said.

McLaughlin said he traded in his own Army-issued sport-utility vehicle for a hybrid to save on gas bills. He declined to comment on whether other ranking officers would be expected to sacrifice their gas-guzzlers.

“I would just tell you that we’re going to look at the fleet post-wide,” he said.

Soldiers who are bound for war and those who just returned will likely be exempt from the extra chores, McLaughlin said.  He’ll consult with commanders from units in “the gray area” of their deployment cycle on how best to divide the duties, he said.

“It’s all about the soldiers and their families, and I want to make sure that as we make recommendations, the units that are affected are part of the decision,” he said.

The budget reduction isn’t final.  McLaughlin said he’ll tally the savings from Fort Carson’s cuts and negotiate a firmer figure from the Army’s Installation Management Command in March or April.

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