Town Hall meetings kick off at Dix Published Jan. 13, 2010 By Steve Snyder Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakeland Public Affairs JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- The first of three Town Hall meetings scheduled to take place this week on each service's home turf in JB MDL occurred at Dix on Jan. 11. Joint Base and 87th Air Base Wing Commander, Col. Gina Grosso, welcomed a crowd to the early evening gathering at Timmermann Center. After briefly introducing her team of experts, Colonel Grosso invited the audience to fire away with any questions they had about the newly-formed Joint Base. And fire away they did, peppering Joint Base officials with queries lasting about an hour. Several issues were raised including snow removal service and communication among elements of the joint base. Officials drew upon standards and procedures adopted on other bases to reply. Invariably, questioners received straightforward, polite replies. Sitting on Joint Base's panel of experts were Col. Glen Yap, commander of the 87th Medical Group; Lt. Col. Timothy Heintzelman, 87th Security Forces Squadron; Maj. John Barlett, 87th Forces Support Squadron; Mr. Christopher Archer, Civil Engineering Squadron; Ms. Denise Bleiler, United Communities; Donna Chew, Defense Commissary Agency and Jose Martinez, general manager for AAFES throughout the Joint Base. Accompanying Colonel Grosso in the audience were Col. Joseph Poth, deputy commander of the Joint Base; Navy Capt. Andre W. Butterfield, deputy mission support commander; Mr. Greg Belva, marketing chief for United Communities and Mr. Henry Bagot, United Community project manager. (Editor's note: Look for coverage of this week's Town Hall meetings at McGuire and Lakehurst in the next issue, September 22, of Air, Land & Sea Times.)