AEDC Visitors Center to close down for holidays

  • Published
  • By Patrick Ary
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  A change is coming to the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) Visitors Center's hours this holiday season, but according to data gathered over the last couple of years, it is a change most people probably will never notice.

Starting this Thanksgiving, the Visitors Center at the main gate will close down completely during holidays designated by Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA). The federal holidays ATA personnel work throughout the year are banked and taken in conjunction with the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's holidays. During these ATA holiday periods, Department of Defense personnel sometimes work, but they often take leave, and there is very little activity on base.

The Visitors Center will close Nov. 25-26 for Thanksgiving. Out of the 10 days between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2, the only day the center will be open for business is Dec. 30.

Installation Security Section Supervisor Dan Hawkins said the decision comes after studying the amount of business that has been conducted at the center during those times over the last three or four years. He said the data shows that on days the base is closed for ATA business, there just aren't enough customers to warrant keeping it open.

"It seemed like a lot of money and a lot of effort going into very little support," Hawkins said.

On a typical day, the Visitors Center will serve between 100 and 200 personnel for ID cards, base entry or both. But on a holiday, Hawkins said typically two or fewer people would stop by to do business. It just isn't cost-effective to man the facility for one percent of the normal business, Hawkins said.

Although a small crew of DoD and ATA people may still work on these ATA holidays, Hawkins said it's rare that anyone needs assistance during this time frame. He said personnel who are working and have an emergency need for a common access card can contact the Operations Center.

In addition to making more fiscal sense, it also gives more employees the chance to spend time with their families during the holidays.

"It's a positive quality of life change for our folks as well, because most of the rest of the base is off and the workload isn't there to warrant keeping the VC open," Hawkins said.