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Making of Shaw Fitness Center addition: Behind the scenes

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Alexandria Mosness
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  The ribbon has been cut at the new fitness and health center addition here to officially open the addition, but what went into making a new 25,000 sq. ft. building?

There were many different agencies that contributed to the new fitness and health addition. From the 20th Force support Squadron, 20th Contracting Squadron, local S.C. businesses and even the U.S. Navy, many hands were involved in making the building a success.

Per DoD Directive, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Naval Facilities Engineering Command are the two authorized DoD construction agents to be used by the Air Force for design and construction of the annual Military Construction program. NAVFAC supports Shaw AFB with this service, and is the construction agent for all MILCON projects on Shaw AFB, including the new fitness center addition.

While everything went as planned on the grand opening, it took a lot of work to get to that final point. There were many different agencies that contributed to the new fitness and health addition. One of those agencies was the 20th Contracting Squadron, who contributed to acquiring the brand new equipment.

"The 20th CONS Base operations support flight provided contract support for the procurement of all strength cardio and general fitness equipment in the new addition," said Tech. Sgt. Nicholas Harder. "Additionally, 20th CONS provided advice and support in the purchase of some of the smaller detail items such as exercise mats."

The flight put more than 480 man hours into preparing the solicitation, evaluating the offers, and awarding the contracts, said Harder.

"The fact that our collective actions will forever leave our signature on Shaw AFB is a great point of satisfaction," he added. "Knowing the war fighters of the 20th Fighter Wing are maintaining their 'Fit-to-Fight' standards on equipment that we made available, inspires a strong sense of pride in the wing mission. Every mile ran, every push-up pressed, every member deployed is an accomplishment that 20th CONS, and its buyers, can take pride in."

The construction of the new fitness center addition also brought in members from the local S.C. community. ENVIRO AgScience, Inc., a small business, was the general contractor for the project.

"Shaw is friendly to small businesses," said Dr. Louis B. Lynn, President of ENVIRO AgScience, Inc. "We are so grateful to have this opportunity to perform this project. It helped us demonstrate our ability to perform large federal projects like this."

As a result of the Shaw fitness and health center addition, the company demonstrated the ability to work on large projects like this, Lynn said. The company was awarded two other military projects working on Marines posts.