European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 13, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday september 13, 1978 the stars and stripes Page 9 first step in upgrading i facilities in Germany was to gut them. Germany picked up much of renovation Tab under mouse. Photos for is by Ron Ruffenach will Cost $49 million i work areas to be Para w by Merle Jacobsen staff writer Heidelberg is soldiers at eight locations in Germany will have modernized work areas As a result of nearly $19 million in construction funds to be spent in fiscal year 1979, according to Usa eur s top Engineer. We put in a new program called the facilities modernization program Ftp. It s essentially a continuation of mouse modernization of . Facilities said maj. Gen. Louis w. Prentiss jr., usar eur Deputy chief of staff Engineer. Prentiss who leaves sept. 20 to take Over the army corps of engineers Ohio River division in Cincinnati said while mouse used German funds to upgrade Barracks and dining facilities Ftp will spend . Funds to improve the Soldier s working environment. Baum older s Smith Barracks will get $14 million the largest amount under Ftp to modernize its facilities. Other installations locations and amounts include Conn Barracks Schweinfurt $8.7 Mil lion Ferris Barracks Erlanger $7.7 Mil lion Coleman Barracks Mannheim $7 million the seventh army training Center Grafe Wohr $4.9 million Ger Szewski Barracks Karlsruhe $3.4 million Christensen Barracks Bundlach $1.8 Mil lion and Wil Flecken training area $1 Mil lion. Existing facilities at six of the caverns will be upgraded while Ferris Barracks and Wil Flecken will Benefit from new construction. A consolidated heating Plant will replace several systems at Ferris bar Racks and Wil Flecken will get new maintenance facilities and hard surfaced parking lots. The heating systems at Grafen shr will be upgraded and improvements will be made to maintenance shops and vehicle parking areas at Baum older Mannheim Schweinfurt Karlsruhe and Bundlach. Prentiss from Annapolis md., said american facilities in Europe began to seriously deteriorate during the Vietnam War when funds were diverted from Upkeep of facilities to fight the War. You can Only do deferral so Long before it begins to collapse around your feet he said. So $80 million was spent from 1968-1972 to improve soldiers living conditions under the Stem to Stern  be cause of congressional prohibitions on spending operations and maintenance funds under Stem to Stern the general said you could t do new work. You could t rearrange the  he said mouse followed Stem to Stern with two offset allocations from the German government of 600 million Marks each. Offset the Soldier of 29 years explained was Germany s Way of sharing the Cost of stationing . Forces in Ger Many. The mouse agreement was signed in december 1971. Renovation began the following month and included army and air Force installations. Prentiss was involved in mouse almost from its Start. I be been in Europe Over Gen. Prentiss Usa eur s chief Engineer ticks off upcoming , Arwine five years and in this Job for two and a half years he said. Under mouse Prentiss said for every four Marks that went to the army one went to the air Force because the army s problem was much More severe. Many of our facilities went Back to Bismarck. They did t have an air Force in the time of Bis  Prentiss said at the end of world War ii army and air Force units occupied Ca Serns of their German counterparts. Mouse he said escaped the ravages of american inflation and the decline of the Dollar to the Mark. We never converted it the Money to dollars so the devaluation had no Impact. This program held its own because it was in Marks he said. The German Economy especially the construction Industry had a very Low rate of inflation during mouse s lifetime the general said. Prentiss said the Only american monies spent on mouse were for salaries of . Representatives at construction Sites. In the Early stages we used about 45 . Corps of engineers captains he said. Next year essentially the program with mouse will be accomplished Pren Tiss said but Ftp will continue for some time. He said Ftp will take about 15 years to Complete and that funding is projected to reach about $100 million annually. I really can t think of anything that has a better Impact to the Good. I think it s mouse had a huge huge Impact on the morale of soldiers  mouse was t without temporary hard ship for soldiers whose Barracks and dining Halls were modernized Prentiss said. It s not been easy. It s forced us into some rather severe overcrowding. What i have seen is the troops really did t mind that inconvenience because they could see what they were going to be moved Back into. It usually would take about six to eight months to gut a building modernize it and move them Back  modernization the general said causes some problems for engineers for exam ple protecting tile designs with military motifs in some of the old buildings. They re really artisans he said of German builders we be gone in and tried to protect the designs although most mouse funds were spent on buildings where soldiers slept and ate some went to protect the environment. At Mannheim Sandhofer for example con Crete basins were built under gasoline Stor age tanks to collect leakage