Direct Line

Tom Kubalewski II, Director, MWR Sigonella

Here at MWR Sigonella, we have been eager and excited to restore MWR services to the community as the COVID-19 situation improves and the Navy and Italian restrictions ease. Unfortunately, although we are now allowed to expand our programming, severe staffing shortages are limiting what we can provide, and we have had to make some very difficult choices. To put it simply, we cannot maintain our services without the support of our NAS Sigonella community.

MWR encompasses many facilities and programs that people rely on for childcare, health, and leisure. Our Child and Youth Programs (CYP) here at NAS Sigonella include the Child Development Center (CDC), School Age Care (SAC), Youth Complex on Marinai and our Youth Sports and Fitness program. Outside of CYP, MWR operates two fitness centers, two outdoor aquatics facilities, an adult sports program, a movie theater, bowling center, two different pubs, the Library, the Liberty Center, the Auto Skills Center, and the Community Recreation program which encompasses a variety of rental equipment, facility reservations, and off base trips and tours.

All of these programs and facilities are staffed by Sigonella community members and American citizens through NAF (non-appropriated funds), as well as by a devoted local national workforce.

Across the board, we are far below staffing levels (for our US staff) that allow us to maintain the existing hours of operation to the extent that we would like to and that the community expects. As a result, we have had many long discussions about what to prioritize with the limited staffing that we have.

Based on these discussions, we arrived at the hard decision that as of June 7, the NAS I Fitness Center will only be open three days per week (MWF) from 0530-1300. The Family Fitness center will remain open only for people accompanied by children, M-F 0930-1730. The NAS II Fitness Center hours will remain the same. The decision to maintain the regular hours of operation of the NAS II gym was made because as the “Hub of the Med” we have a constant influx of deployed service members onboard NAS II. At the same time, we have decided not to re-open the NAS II pool which will allow us to utilize our lifeguards in the gym and still be able to operate the NAS 1 pool for summer lap swim, recreational swim and swim lessons to better serve our families.

We know this will not be a popular decision within our community, but I would like to remind you that this decision is only temporary as we work on creative ideas that may allow us to restore some of the hours in the short term. Ultimately, the long term solution hinges on hiring additional employees from the community.

High-quality, reliable childcare is also important to the success of our mission, and Child and Youth Programs (CYP) is committed to providing this service to the community. Unfortunately, the CDC and SAC are currently severely understaffed and CNIC requires several COVID-19 mitigation measures including smaller groups of children and increased time spent on cleaning and sanitation. These circumstances mean that we are currently unable to offer spots to more families, stay open for longer hours, provide our usual summer camp offerings, or offer services like drop-in hours or INDOC care. The staffing levels also mean we are unable to reopen the Youth Complex at this time.

We were able to offer a three week soccer program in June and are doing everything we can to try and offer additional sports for the remainder of the summer and next school year.

We continue to try to provide more offerings when we can, especially after the difficulties of this year. MWR tours, trips, and classes have restarted, and we are bringing back our popular Bingo. You can go to the movies, you can go bowling, you can rent outdoor recreational equipment, you can go to the library, and Jox Pub is expanding their hours as the Italian decree allows. We are also very excited for our popular Red, White and BOOM event, which will be held on Friday, July 2.

However, as we go through the summer, all of these programs and facilities are dependent on appropriate staffing levels. The bottom line is that if we cannot hire more people it may result in an additional strain on MWR Sigonella services.

If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about how to apply for a job with MWR, please visit https://www.navymwrsigonella. com/job-opportunities or stop by the NAF Personnel Office which is located in the Commons building (157) across from Midtown, where all the job descriptions and paperwork required are available in hard copy.