February 7, 2020
3
Interactive Customer Evaluation Comment Regarding MVRO Gym:
The saunas and showers are not very clean. In addition on NAS I the showers in the male head, half of them don’t work. It never fails that I need to use athletics foot cream once I am done using the facilities or I will come down with athletics foot. Yes I use shower shoes and it is a won-der no one hasn’t caught MERCA, or maybe they have but the population doesn’t know about it. Please clean up the NAS I and II saunas and fix the showers. Thanks!
Response:
Thank you for your feedback about our facilities. We apologize that you have had a less than sat-isfactory experience. The locker rooms are cleaned by the PW base contractor daily but based on foot traffic and the time of day they clean, it can feel like it is not enough. We will ask Public Works if they are able to increase the number of times they clean our facility but it usually comes down to funding. With that said, we do know that our gyms are cleaned to a satisfactory manner that enables us to avoid serious infections such as MRSA. To date, no report of MRSA incidents have occurred. We are not aware of a time when we have had half of our showers down at once but there was a period of time where two were out of order. We apologize for that inconvenience. If you have any questions or additional comments, please contact Elizabeth Leonard at 624-0504 or by email at elizabeth.leonard@eu.navy.mil.
Comment Regarding the Pool:
We have received multiple ICE comments regarding the pool extension. Though our response addresses the concerns of all, we have provided one comment as a representative example: NAS Sigonella is the Hub of the Med,
supporting warfighters and maintaining mission readiness, right? How can we do that if we don’t even take physical fitness seriously? The pool is closed for an additional month?? The gym hours have not changed AT ALL even after numerous complaints. What mission can we support if more than half our servicemembers don’t have the cardiovascular endurance to cross large distances? What mission can we support if our service members lack the upper body strength to drag/ carry a person to safety? Or better yet, do even two pull ups. Motivate your active duty staff to come work out by making our limited fitness services more accessible. Copy the hours from ANY installation that is NOT Sigonella and you will see how other installations are doing better than us. Establish an outdoor gym area. FIX THE POOL.
Response:
First off, I understand your frustration with the recently announced delay in the NAS I pool re-pairs. Maintenance of the NAS I pool is required for safety reasons, and the lengthy closure is largely due to adhering to strict environmental laws while draining the pool. To accommodate the extended closure of the NAS I pool, 27 hours per week were added to the NAS II schedule, which is where you will find our NAS I lifeguards. During this timeframe, we have been able to accommodate all requested Command trainings, PRTs, and Active Duty who wish to have extra training to pass swim qualifications. Please know that we always analyzes our utilization numbers to best accommodate our custom-ers. We don’t have maintain later pool hours due to the fact that over the past two years, we have only averaged three people swimming during our last "ICE" cont’d on Page 11
THE SIGNATURE
U.S. NAVAL AIR STATION SIGONELLA
Commanding Officer Capt. Kevin Pickard Executive Officer Cmdr. Patrick J. Moran Command Master Chief CMDCM Nancy Estrada EDITORIAL
Public Affairs Officer Lt. Karl Schonberg karl.schonberg@eu.navy.mil
Public Affairs Leading Petty Officer MC1 Kegan Kay kegan.kay@eu.navy.mil Community Relations Officer Dott. Alberto Lunetta alberto.lunetta.it@eu.navy.mil PAO Staff Writers \ Photographers MC2 Joshua Coté joshua.m.cote@eu.navy.mil
MR2 Kyle Drummond kyle.m.drummond@navy.mil MCSA Triniti Lersch triniti.lersch@navy.mil CONTACT US
Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily thesig@eu.navy.mil DSN 624-5440; 095-86-5440 PSC 812 Box 7, FPO, AE 09627-0001
This newspaper is an authorized publication for members of the military services overseas. Contents of The Signature are not necessarily the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense (DoD), or the U.S. Navy. Editorial submissions are welcomed from all Naval Air Station Sigonella departments, divisions and tenant commands. Editorial submissions should be sent to the Public Affairs Office via thesig@eu.navy.mil. All articles submitted by non-staff members will be considered contributing writers.
