97th MDG scheduled to hold ribbon cutting ceremony Published Jan. 9, 2012 By Airman 1st Class Kenneth W. Norman 97th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- A ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled to take place Jan. 18 at the 97th Medical Group for the grand opening of the Dental Clinic and renovated medical facility. Construction that began July 2009 was a $7.25 million project aimed to reduce the environmental footprint of the medical building and to consolidate all medical facilities under one roof. "We have reduced our square footage by approximately 43,000 square feet," said Robert Carnes, 97th Medical Group facility manager. "These changes are going to reduce the costs associated with running the facilities. For patients it is going to be one-stop-shopping for everything and it is a more pleasant atmosphere for them to come to." The reduction in square footage came from closing the second floor of the facility, closing the old dental clinic and building a new clinic in building the main medical facility. "We gutted the second floor. It is bare walls all the way around," Carnes said. "We renovated the first floor to move departments around to make room for the dental clinic to move into the main medical building." With the reduction in square footage the medical facility will save Altus AFB and tax payer's money. "We are in a fiscally constrained budget and every square foot we don't use is a square foot that we don't have to light, plumb or clean," said Lt. Col. Douglas Gimlich, 97th Medical Support Squadron commander. "The cost savings to the tax payer are staggering. If we can do equal amounts with less square footage, then that is our charge as professional Airmen to do so. We don't want to keep a second floor of this building open just to make it office space." The project was completed by the Army Corps of Engineers from Little Rock, Ark. and Tulsa, Okla. "We finished on schedule and on budget with minimal delays, which means a lot to the Army Corps of Engineers," Carnes said. This project is an investment for the future of Altus AFB and the people who use the medical facility. "We invested more than $7 million in everything we have done," Gimlich said. "That investment is an investment in the future of this base and this community and speaks volumes of the Air Force's commitment to Altus as a community in Oklahoma and also as an Air Force base. We have gone floor to ceiling and given this community one of the finest medical treatment facilities in the Air Force."