FACILITY MASTER PLAN

FOR THE

BIGHORN NATIONAL FOREST

October 2002

Chapter 3: Strategies & Goals

A Forest-wide Facilities Strategy

Short-Term Goals, Long-Term Strategy, Priority Setting, & Facility Disposal Recommendations

Through discussion with the Forest Leadership Team long-term guiding strategies and short-term goals were identified. These are strategies that will guide the forest in the development of facility projects. These strategies & goals are listed below. Workforce tables and charts are listed in Appendices A & C.

In addition, facilities were reviewed for current and future needs, and a list of facilities recommended for disposal was created.

Long-Term Strategy

The Long-Term Strategy is the core of the Facility Master Plan. These Strategies give overall direction for the management of Facilities on the Bighorn National Forest.

PREPARE ANNUAL PRIORITY LIST OF PROJECTS

An annual meeting will be held with all District Facility Reps to determine the annual facilities program of work. Out-year projects will be planned to meet planning guidelines established by the Region. Focus will be on the following:

1. Maintenance level 3,4, & 5 facilities.
   
   
2. Critical health & safety and resource protection components (H&S items, roofs, electrical, water & wastewater, weather-proofing, structural, etc.)
   
   
3. Reduction of critical deferred maintenance backlog items.

OPERATION & MAINTENANCE SEASONAL CREW

• Continue use of a 2-person O&M crew for annual maintenance & minor projects.
  
  
• Annual program of work will be established based on FMP priorities with input from Districts.
  
  
• Use of the District Site Managers to do minor routine maintenance.
  
  
• Annual accomplishment report will be completed to track projects completed and aid in determining future maintenance needs.
  
  
• Infra will be updated to reflect completed maintenance.

PRESERVE HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT PROPERTIES

• When the priority list of projects is established, ensure cultural resources are preserved.
  
  
• Look for alternative sources of funding when available for rehabilitating and preserving historic structures.

SUSTAINABILITY, BUILT ENVIRONMENT IMAGE GUIDE (BEIG), AND ACCESSIBILITY

• Integrate sustainable design principles into all facility decisions. Sustainable design can aid in reducing future deferred maintenance, protecting the environment, and reducing operations and maintenance costs. It also connects our facilities more closely to the mission of the agency.
  
  
• Facility decisions will be made based on life-cycle costs.
  
  
• Facility decisions will incorporate the guidelines in the BEIG.
  
  
• Facility decisions will integrate the recommendations of the Accessibility Transition Plan.

REDUCE NUMBER OF ADMINISTRATIVE BUILDINGS

• In particular, storage buildings across the forest are not being used efficiently. Many of them could be operated more efficiently, which would enable us to eliminate the need to use old toilet buildings for storage.
  
  
• In attempt to be more efficient in our storage use, we can clean out items not used any longer, dispose of hazardous waste, and move items which do not need protection from the elements to the work center bone yards.
  
  
• By reducing the total square footage of our facilities will reduce our deferred maintenance backlog, and ease our transition to the proposed WCF facility operation, maintenance, and replacement fund.

LEASING STRATEGY

Currently, office lease costs funded through a Regional budget earmark. This earmark will be phased out completely by FY04. The Forest will need to evaluate office lease costs as part of it's overall facility program

Short-Term Goals

The Short-Term Goals are a list of work items to be completed in the next 2-5 years. These goals will bring the Forest Facilities Program up to standards established by the Forest Manual. Once these goals have been reached, it will make it easier for the Forest to set priorities for construction and maintenance of FA&O facilities

SITE DEVELOPMENT PLANS

• Prepare Site Development Plans for all existing administrative sites prior to any Capital Improvement work.
  
  
• Plans address all current and future needs, such as office space, storage, workshops, housing, utilities, traffic patterns, VIS, etc.

FACILITY WORKING CAPITAL FUND (WCF)

• Plan for Facility WCF, which will likely begin in FY04.
  
  
• Identify and begin process of disposal of unnecessary buildings.
  
  
• The Region is still determining how this process will work.

HAZARDOUS WASTE

• All administrative sites will be brought into compliance with hazardous waste regulations.
  
  
• Adequate flammable storage will be installed at each work center.
  
  
• Surveys were completed in the fall of 2000, and a report will be completed and submitted to the Forest in early 2001. This report will guide the forest in eliminating hazardous wastes from our facilities.

ACCESSIBILITY TRANSITION PLAN

• Complete Accessibility Transition Plans for all of our Administrative Facilities.
  
  
• Ensure all new facility construction or reconstruction is in compliance with accessibility guidelines.

DISTRICT FACILITY MANAGERS

• Establish clear roles & responsibilities or District Facility Managers.
  
  
• Determine and allocate necessary number of days in work plans to accomplish work.

QUARTERS ANALYSIS

• Complete a survey of all quarters. This would include a survey of items such as appliances, furniture, and annual maintenance items.
  
  
• Create a replacement schedule for appliances, furniture, etc.
  
  
• Calculate how much quarters money is being generated at each facility. Compare with budget used for maintenance to see if money is being returned to facilities in an equitable amount, or if this is even feasible.

Priority Setting

The Priorities spreadsheet (Appendix E, Table E-1) shows specific out-year projects that the Forest hopes to accomplish and what goal each of those projects helps us meet. These will be re-visited each year to take into account any priority shifts.

Priorities will be set using National or Regional direction. They will also be established based on the Short-Term Goals and Long-Term Strategies listed in this Facility Master Plan.

Projects will be accomplished in a variety of ways. Opening and closing of work centers and utility systems at the beginning and end of the summer work season will be done in different ways. The seasonal facility maintenance crew will do some, the site managers will do some, and some will be contracted out, depending on timing and availability of the crew. During the summer, the maintenance crew will use a portion of the annual facility budget to do routine operation & maintenance. They will also work on small force-account facility projects.

Larger, more complicated projects will use the normal contracting method for construction and re-construction. The Forest will also keep an updated list of priorities on the shelf for placement on the annual FA&O Capital Improvement Project program of work, in order to meet any new construction needs.

Facility Disposal Recommendations (Outside Forest Boundary)

Beginning in 2004, a major change will take place in the way Forest Service FA&O facility maintenance is funded. In the past few years on the Bighorn NF the budget for FA&O facility maintenance has hovered between $70,000 and $90,000. The Quarters budget has been between $30,000 and $40,000.

Beginning in 2004, the Forest Service will be switching to a Working Capital Fund for facility maintenance. In other words, all functional areas of the forest will be charged a certain rate based upon how many square feet of facilities they use. Therefore, it is necessary to look at all of the facilities on the forest to see if the existing facility space is being utilized in an efficient manner. Overall, this will be a work in progress. Also, space needs may change from year to year.

To get ready for this shift in funding, the Forest looked at all facilities outside the forest boundary to find out if any of them were inefficient or excess to forest needs.

See Table E-2 for a list of those facilities recommended for disposal.

There are 7 Forest Service owned administrative sites outside the Bighorn National Forest boundary.

1. Sheridan Work Center - Sheridan
   
   
2. Greybull Work Center - Greybull
   
   
3. Greybull Dwelling - Greybull
   
   
4. Lovell Dwelling - Lovell
   
   
5. Buffalo Dwelling - Buffalo
   
   
6. Supervisor's Dwelling - Sheridan
   
   
7. S.O. Garage - Sheridan

Below is a discussion of each site, and the Forest recommendation.

1. SHERIDAN WORK CENTER

Sheridan Work Center is located on 217 acres of land adjacent to the Veteran's Administration (VA) Hospital on the outskirts of Sheridan. The Forest acquired this land from the VA. The Supervisor's Office and the Tongue District use this site extensively. It is especially important during the winter, when most of the work centers on the mountain are shut down. Sheridan Work Center is very important for accomplishing the forest mission and will remain so in the foreseeable future.

There are two dwellings at the Sheridan Work Center. An employee currently occupies one of them. The other one, (the rock house) was gutted by a fire several years ago, and would need remodeling before it could be occupied. The rental and housing vacancy rates in Sheridan are both less than half the Wyoming average, and are both well below the national average. The forest would like to retain the first dwelling for permanent employees, in order to keep a security presence at the Work Center. The second building would be remodeled in the future for temporary seasonal use.

The rock house located at Sheridan Work Center was gutted by a fire in the 80's. The roof was replaced to protect the interior, but nothing else was done. The interior needs to be remodeled before this building is suitable for occupancy. Since another dwelling exists at the Work Center, it would make sense to not spend any money on this building, and possibly recommend it for disposal.

However there is another factor to consider here. The building is a one-of-a-kind rock house. There is no other building like it on the forest. It was built in 1942 as part of the Fort McKenzie, and the exterior is still in good shape. The building is located very near the entrance to the Veteran's Administration site. If this building is disposed, it is likely the community of Sheridan would notice and not particularly appreciate the Forest Service removing a very visible structure like this. For these reasons, the Forest wishes to keep the building until such time where money is available to restore it.

FOREST RECOMMENDATION: Retain this site along with both dwellings.

2. GREYBULL WORK CENTER

Greybull Work Center is located on 6.33 acres of land in the city limits of Greybull. There are two buildings on the site. One is the crew quarters for the Wyoming Inter-Agency Hotshot Fire Crew. The other is the old Paintrock district office, which is half garage/storage and half office space. The hotshot crew has been based out of this site for close to 30 years. The work center is also used by the district for storage and maintenance activities, especially during the winter when work centers on the mountain are shut down. Greybull Work Center is in a key location for accomplishing work on the Medicine Wheel / Paintrock district.

FOREST RECOMMENDATION: Neither this site nor the two facilities on it will be recommended for disposal.

3. GREYBULL DWELLING and 4. LOVELL DWELLING

There are single-family dwellings located in both Lovell and Greybull. Both houses have detached garages. In general, the housing market in the communities west of the Bighorn Mountains is depressed. In fact, the rental vacancy rate in Lovell and Greybull are 3 times the national average, and twice the Wyoming average at around 18.5% as of the 2000 Census.

The Forest has determined that in the long run neither of these facilities is necessary for Forest Service operations. However, at the present time, the District has recommended that the facility in Greybull be retained for a few more years to allow for better FS presence. When the time comes to recommend disposal of this dwelling in Greybull, the forest will need to revisit this decision to make sure the timing is right. In the long run, both of these sites are recommended for disposal (This includes the land as well).

FOREST RECOMMENDATION:

GREYBULL DWELLING: Keep this dwelling for the next 5 years, then re-visit decision.

LOVELL DWELLING: Recommend disposal of the building and garage along with the site.

5. BUFFALO DWELLING

The dwelling in buffalo was designed as a single-family residence. Historically, it has been used temporarily by new employees. However in the summers of 2001 & 2002, since it was vacant, and there was no vacant space at Hunter RS, the Hunter Fire Crew used it, since it is only 12 miles down the mountain from Hunter.

A 10-person barracks at Hunter Work Center has been placed on the Regional Fire Facility list. However this project is still several years away. Until that time, quarters will be needed in the Buffalo/Hunter area. Since the housing market in Buffalo is extremely tight (half the Wyoming average) this dwelling could be used to house seasonals. Therefore, the forest recommends keeping this building until a barracks is built at Hunter. At that time, the forest can re-visit this decision, and potentially recommend this facility for disposal.

FOREST RECOMMENDATION: Keep the building until a barracks is built at Hunter. At that time, the Forest will re-visit the decision, and potentially recommend the building for disposal.

6. SUPERVISOR'S DWELLING

The Supervisor's dwelling is a single family dwelling with a detached garage. This house has generally been used for long periods of time by Forest Service employees working at either the Supervisor's Office or the Tongue District. A Forest Service employee currently resides in this house.

The occupancy rate in Sheridan is very low compared to the Wyoming or U.S. averages. However, in spite of this, the city of Sheridan is large enough (pop. 15,800) to provide a variety of housing options, even though there are few. As soon as it is remodeled, the rock house at Sheridan Work Center would also be able to house people temporarily.

FOREST RECOMMENDATION: The Forest recommends this building and the associated garage, along with the site for disposal.

7. S.O. GARAGE (SHERIDAN BULL PEN)

Sheridan Bull Pen is a garage located in downtown Sheridan. In the past, the S.O. and Tongue District have used this building as a storage facility and a soils lab. During the past 10 to 15 years or so, use of the lab has ceased.

When the S.O. and Tongue Ranger District signed a new lease in 2000, a separate large warehouse was included. This added more storage space than was available at the previous leased office. Therefore the need for the bullpen has diminished.

FOREST RECOMMENDATION: The Forest recommends this site be disposed.

Facility Disposal Recommendations (Inside Forest Boundary)

All administrative buildings on the Forest were reviewed. The following do not currently nor is it anticipated that they will meet the facility needs of the forest. They are therefore recommended for disposal.

See Table E-3 for detailed information about each building.

1. Shell RS Small Storage
   
   
2. Paintrock GS Toilet
   
   
3. Tyrrell Small Storage #2
   
   
4. Tyrrell River Cabin Toilet
   
   
5. Tyrrell RS Pesticide Storage
   
   
6. Sheridan WC Hay Barn
   
   
7. Burgess RS ENG Trailer
   
   
8. Burgess RS Pumphouse
   
   
9. Big Goose Bunkhouse
   
   
10. Willow Creek Storage Shed #2
    
    
11. Dayton Powder Cache
    
    
12. Prairie Dog Electronic Building