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Fort Riley housing gets updated

FORT RILEY - Soldiers say their living conditions at Fort Riley are clean, dry and, for the most part, as modern as any apartment complex they could find.

The surroundings have come at a hefty price tag as the Army demolishes older barracks and constructs new ones to upgrade facilities and make room for an expanding 1st Infantry Division.

In Building 411, Staff Sgt. Steve Richard said his only complaint is not having his own thermostat, so he can't adjust the temperature when it gets cool at night. It's a minor problem -- he uses a sleeping bag on his bed -- while he waits for his wife and daughter to join him from Florida so he can move into housing for married soldiers.

The quality of housing for single soldiers came to light after the father of an 82nd Airborne Division soldiers discovered poor conditions in barracks at Fort Bragg, N.C.

"I do think (Fort Bragg) is the exception rather than the norm," Richard said.

A video from Fort Bragg, posted on YouTube, prompted Army officials to order barracks inspections across the service. The video showed mold, peeling paint and broken plumbing fixtures in the Korean War-era barracks.

"I can understand why the father would be furious," said U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kansas. "The guys who are coming home from Iraq shouldn't have worse conditions than what they had when they were in Iraq."

At Fort Riley, the Army has spent more than $50 million over the past three years to repair and renovate the 5,808 barrack rooms on post.

An additional 2,950 rooms are planned or under construction in the next seven years, all related to growth from the return of the 1st Infantry Division from Germany in 2006.

The barracks at Fort Riley fall into three categories: new, refurbished and destined for replacement.

Among the refurbished is Building 411, a two-story limestone structure on the area known as Main Post. It was built in 1889 when the Army began expanding Fort Riley to house its cavalry school.

The rooms were last renovated in 2004 at a cost of $4.3 million to convert to the Army's new "1+1" standard of housing. One soldier lives next to one soldier, sharing a common kitchenette and shower area.