Weeds ‘n’ Seeds; new changes to base housing grounds maintenance

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jason McCasland
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  Recently on-base housing underwent slight modifications to the grounds maintenance than what more than 3,290 residents were accustomed to.

The new grounds maintenance standards and amenities changes are not a big one but one that could still affect those living in privatized housing on Barksdale.

"Now the residents are going to be responsible for maintaining their flowerbeds," said Melinda Byrd Barksdale Family Housing community director. "They will need to make sure they are kept clean and neat. Before we were weeding them as part of our normal landscaping, but with as many houses we have it became a very daunting task for our landscapers since they had a short amount of time to get all of it done."

Because of the new changes landscapers will mulch and trim shrubs biannually instead of annually, she added.

Although the family housing office landscapers mulch and trim biannually, housing residents can check-out equipment free of charge from the self help store located at 320 Rickenbacker Ave., if they choose to trim shrubs back more often.

"We also ordered new equipment for our self help store this year, this way we will have more to be checked-out, and our residents can do any extra work they would like to do," said Byrd. "We have also improved the self help store so that now we are carrying things like grass seed, flowers, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, pesticides, weed killer, light bulbs and more. We have been steadily working towards improving our residences way of life."

The dedicated teams at the Barksdale Family Housing are constantly working to make the residents feel like their house is their own home. Constant improvements are being made and the following amenities can be found at the welcome center located at 201 Langley Dr., a multipurpose room for birthday parties and more, free Wi-Fi, Fitness room and large outdoor playground.

Despite small changes to the grounds maintenance and landscaping rules, the Barksdale Family Housing staff will continue to work with each of their residents to make sure that everyone understands the change and continue to provide quality housing with quality service.

For more information on the Barksdale Family Housing changes or amenities contact Melinda Byrd at 318-747-2723 or email barksdale@huntcompanies.com.