By now, you’ve undoubtedly read or heard news reports that the Norfolk District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is investigating some safety concerns at Gathright Dam in Alleghany County, Va.
The short version is that a team of Corps experts assigned Gathright Dam a Dam Safety Action Classification (DSAC) code of II on Sept. 2, 2009.
This means that Gathright Dam is considered to have unconfirmed (potentially unsafe) issues that merit further study and analysis. This rating is attributed to concerns about possible increased seepage at the toe of the dam, and an undetermined flow rate at the river spring a quarter mile downstream, and potential flow channels through limestone below the spillway during pool events above 1600 feet.
We're confident there is no evidence to suggest an emergency situation exists or is about to occur at Gathright Dam, but we’ve also taken immediate action to minimize risk to public safety and, throughout 2010, we’ll be investigating the three unconfirmed safety issues at Gathright.
I recognize that many of you may have questions or concerns you’d like to address privately or publicly. If you’d like to send in your questions by e-mail, please send them to gathrightsafety@usace.army.mil. If you’d like to share your questions or concerns publicly, please post them here on the blog. Either way, I will ensure you get a response.
For those of you who just want to follow our progress at Gathright Dam, I encourage you to see our dedicated Web page at http://www.nao.usace.army.mil/gathrightsafety.asp. Or, you can stay up-to-date on the latest Gathright Dam developments, by following our Twitter updates (http://www.twitter.com/norfolkdistrict), viewing our Flickr photostream (http://www.flickr.com/photos/armyengineersnorfolk) and checking out our Facebook FanPage (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Norfolk-VA/Norfolk-District-US-Army-Corps-of-Engineers/38798304057).
I look forward to hearing your thoughts and answering your questions on this issue.
Building Strong!
COL Andy Backus
Friday, October 2, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Command Climate Survey Feedback #2
Team:
Continuing to following up on the command climate survey, here is feedback on the second most frequently addressed subject that you commented on: facilities. (I attached the overall comment breakdown again below for reference.) As with my first feedback on leadership concerns, I will communicate these both by e-mail and on this blog.
Facilities issues were the second most prominent issue on your minds with 108 out of 628 comments (17.2%) on this subject. Of the 108 comments, 28 were positively-slanted, 65 were negatively-slanted, and 15 were neutral (general in nature and not specifically positive or negative). Of these 108 comments, the majority (85%) pertain to the Waterfield Building in Norfolk while the other 15% deal with field sites. Copied below are some of your specific comments regarding this subject area:
On the positive side:
1. "This is a great building to work in -- scenic location, lots of windows, food court, etc."
2. "I like my duty location. Hopefully next year I'll be riding the light rail to work."
3. "LOVE my duty location; appreciate it in all respects. It is magnificent and should be incorporated in our recruitment efforts."
4. "I absolutely love the location of the District HQ. Lots of morale boosters from the location."
5. "The physical location and atmosphere of the District is very tranquil."
My thoughts: We are very fortunate to have the scenery and history of the Ft. Norfolk location for our headquarters, and we also seem to be well positioned to use Norfolk’s new light rail service that is being constructed. We have started using the Waterfield Building with the group photo of our employees in front as the concluding slide to all of our powerpoint briefs and USACE Campaign Plan material – I agree it is a good visual of Campaign Plan Goal #4 (Build and Cultivate a Strong Team) and we will continue to use it in recruitment efforts as comment #3 suggests. With regard to field sites, I did not include an example comment above, but there were several of the “neutral” comments that indicated that field work spaces were adequate for the missions.
On the negative side, three common themes emerged:
Furniture / Workstations:
1. "We don't have enough workspace here. My desk is too narrow; if I want to spread out engineer-scale plans, I have to go to a conference room."
2. "Sterile, no color, no art, no sophisticated display of finished work."
3. "Cramming 2 supervisors into a single 8'x 10' office gets a little tight. Cubicles are too small to look at full size plans."
4. "Outfitting of the field offices is done by scrounging whatever we can find. Very little new furnishings or equipment is provided; we may get district hand-me-downs."
5. "Norfolk District Space Plan - I feel that District may be outgrowing the building. The way the Norfolk District Space Plan is laid out, it appears that the grand scheme is space restrictive and trying to cram too many people into too small a space."
HVAC / Air Flow / Temperature:
1. "The temperature in my work area is always at least 77-85 degrees."
2. "The ventilation and temperature control is awful."
3. "The current ventilation system constantly fails. Some days it smells like the zoo in here."
4. "Seems to be a big humidity problem because our paper curls up very badly making it difficult to copy and bind documents."
5. "I think our trailers are not healthy. Many people have allergy-like symptoms when they come to work and disappear after they are home or gone for the weekend."
Noise:
1. "Noise levels are probably unavoidable in a cubicle situation, but noise around me is distracting and effects productivity."
2. "Office noise (people on the phone, conversations, etc) can be distracting."
3. "The cubes are noisy. It is a combination of people not knowing to use their "inside voices" and just the impossibility of having a good environment in cubeland."
4. "The noise level is very disruptive. When it is suggested that fellow employees keep it down, it is taken as offensive. It is bad enough to have to listen to others as they discuss work related issues but loud people tend to be unaware of how loud they actually are and inconsiderate people do not care that their constant chatter is disruptive and unproductive."
5. "New office furniture and equipment is a start but over-crowding and no walls allows for too much noise."
My thoughts: With respect to the headquarters, we are addressing all of these concerns with the Waterfield Building renovation that is occurring this fall. This is a $5 million project to update our facility for the first time since its original construction over 25 years ago, and will include all new furniture (you may be interested to know that the Waterfield Building was originally outfitted with furniture scheduled for disposal at the Defense Reutilization Management Office (DRMO)—essentially second hand furniture that we have used for the 25+ years in the facility. I’d say we can certainly be proud of our stewardship of the taxpayers’ resources in this case!). The new furniture should significantly address the noise and furniture comments that you submitted. The PAO will be adding some photos of our employees and projects to personalize the renovated facility so it won’t be so sterile as comment #2 suggests.
Other notes: Our logistics/facilities team is also working a backup power solution, which will solve the HVAC problems—I have given them guidance that “band aid solutions are not acceptable” and they are working hard for a permanent solution so our working environment consistently remains comfortable.
With respect to the trailers at the field sites—as I mentioned, most comments on these were neutral. I will be glad to talk about specific concerns when I visit each site, and will certainly help where it makes sense. We have already sent furniture to the Gathright Dam facility to continue to improve conditions there. I have great confidence in our facilities and logistics folks, so don’t hesitate to communicate with them for specific improvements—I know they are also glad to help!
Here is the original Command Climate Survey breakout:
Rank/Subject Count (% of Total Comments)
1. Leadership 397 (63.2%)
2. Facilities 108 (17.2%)
3. IT 74 (11.8%)
4. Training 51 (8.1%)
5. HR 43 (6.8%)
6. Telework 41 (6.5%)
7. EEO 36 (5.7%)
8. CWS 29 (4.6%)
9. Fitness 20 (3.2%)
10. Contracting 13 (2.1%)
11. Financial 7 (1.1%)
12. Logistics 6 (1.0%)
13. Equipment 4 (0.6%)
14. Safety 4 (0.6%)
15. Security 3 (0.5%)
16. Legal 2 (0.3%)
17. PAO 2 (0.3%)
18. Deployment 1 (0.2%)
19. Library 1 (0.2%)
20. N/A 60
My next messages will cover your comments on IT and training.
Building Strong!
COL B.
Continuing to following up on the command climate survey, here is feedback on the second most frequently addressed subject that you commented on: facilities. (I attached the overall comment breakdown again below for reference.) As with my first feedback on leadership concerns, I will communicate these both by e-mail and on this blog.
Facilities issues were the second most prominent issue on your minds with 108 out of 628 comments (17.2%) on this subject. Of the 108 comments, 28 were positively-slanted, 65 were negatively-slanted, and 15 were neutral (general in nature and not specifically positive or negative). Of these 108 comments, the majority (85%) pertain to the Waterfield Building in Norfolk while the other 15% deal with field sites. Copied below are some of your specific comments regarding this subject area:
On the positive side:
1. "This is a great building to work in -- scenic location, lots of windows, food court, etc."
2. "I like my duty location. Hopefully next year I'll be riding the light rail to work."
3. "LOVE my duty location; appreciate it in all respects. It is magnificent and should be incorporated in our recruitment efforts."
4. "I absolutely love the location of the District HQ. Lots of morale boosters from the location."
5. "The physical location and atmosphere of the District is very tranquil."
My thoughts: We are very fortunate to have the scenery and history of the Ft. Norfolk location for our headquarters, and we also seem to be well positioned to use Norfolk’s new light rail service that is being constructed. We have started using the Waterfield Building with the group photo of our employees in front as the concluding slide to all of our powerpoint briefs and USACE Campaign Plan material – I agree it is a good visual of Campaign Plan Goal #4 (Build and Cultivate a Strong Team) and we will continue to use it in recruitment efforts as comment #3 suggests. With regard to field sites, I did not include an example comment above, but there were several of the “neutral” comments that indicated that field work spaces were adequate for the missions.
On the negative side, three common themes emerged:
Furniture / Workstations:
1. "We don't have enough workspace here. My desk is too narrow; if I want to spread out engineer-scale plans, I have to go to a conference room."
2. "Sterile, no color, no art, no sophisticated display of finished work."
3. "Cramming 2 supervisors into a single 8'x 10' office gets a little tight. Cubicles are too small to look at full size plans."
4. "Outfitting of the field offices is done by scrounging whatever we can find. Very little new furnishings or equipment is provided; we may get district hand-me-downs."
5. "Norfolk District Space Plan - I feel that District may be outgrowing the building. The way the Norfolk District Space Plan is laid out, it appears that the grand scheme is space restrictive and trying to cram too many people into too small a space."
HVAC / Air Flow / Temperature:
1. "The temperature in my work area is always at least 77-85 degrees."
2. "The ventilation and temperature control is awful."
3. "The current ventilation system constantly fails. Some days it smells like the zoo in here."
4. "Seems to be a big humidity problem because our paper curls up very badly making it difficult to copy and bind documents."
5. "I think our trailers are not healthy. Many people have allergy-like symptoms when they come to work and disappear after they are home or gone for the weekend."
Noise:
1. "Noise levels are probably unavoidable in a cubicle situation, but noise around me is distracting and effects productivity."
2. "Office noise (people on the phone, conversations, etc) can be distracting."
3. "The cubes are noisy. It is a combination of people not knowing to use their "inside voices" and just the impossibility of having a good environment in cubeland."
4. "The noise level is very disruptive. When it is suggested that fellow employees keep it down, it is taken as offensive. It is bad enough to have to listen to others as they discuss work related issues but loud people tend to be unaware of how loud they actually are and inconsiderate people do not care that their constant chatter is disruptive and unproductive."
5. "New office furniture and equipment is a start but over-crowding and no walls allows for too much noise."
My thoughts: With respect to the headquarters, we are addressing all of these concerns with the Waterfield Building renovation that is occurring this fall. This is a $5 million project to update our facility for the first time since its original construction over 25 years ago, and will include all new furniture (you may be interested to know that the Waterfield Building was originally outfitted with furniture scheduled for disposal at the Defense Reutilization Management Office (DRMO)—essentially second hand furniture that we have used for the 25+ years in the facility. I’d say we can certainly be proud of our stewardship of the taxpayers’ resources in this case!). The new furniture should significantly address the noise and furniture comments that you submitted. The PAO will be adding some photos of our employees and projects to personalize the renovated facility so it won’t be so sterile as comment #2 suggests.
Other notes: Our logistics/facilities team is also working a backup power solution, which will solve the HVAC problems—I have given them guidance that “band aid solutions are not acceptable” and they are working hard for a permanent solution so our working environment consistently remains comfortable.
With respect to the trailers at the field sites—as I mentioned, most comments on these were neutral. I will be glad to talk about specific concerns when I visit each site, and will certainly help where it makes sense. We have already sent furniture to the Gathright Dam facility to continue to improve conditions there. I have great confidence in our facilities and logistics folks, so don’t hesitate to communicate with them for specific improvements—I know they are also glad to help!
Here is the original Command Climate Survey breakout:
Rank/Subject Count (% of Total Comments)
1. Leadership 397 (63.2%)
2. Facilities 108 (17.2%)
3. IT 74 (11.8%)
4. Training 51 (8.1%)
5. HR 43 (6.8%)
6. Telework 41 (6.5%)
7. EEO 36 (5.7%)
8. CWS 29 (4.6%)
9. Fitness 20 (3.2%)
10. Contracting 13 (2.1%)
11. Financial 7 (1.1%)
12. Logistics 6 (1.0%)
13. Equipment 4 (0.6%)
14. Safety 4 (0.6%)
15. Security 3 (0.5%)
16. Legal 2 (0.3%)
17. PAO 2 (0.3%)
18. Deployment 1 (0.2%)
19. Library 1 (0.2%)
20. N/A 60
My next messages will cover your comments on IT and training.
Building Strong!
COL B.
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