LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Michael Honey, 47th Civil Engineer Squadron electrical engineer, was chosen by wing leadership to be “XLer of the week”, for the week of Nov. 22, 2017.
The “XLer” award, presented by Col. Charlie Velino, 47th Flying Training Wing commander is given to those who consistently make outstanding contributions to their unit and the Laughlin mission.
Honey helped privatize up to $5 million worth of utilities on base, and completed both technical evaluations and upgrades to the maintenance department. His work, according to Honey’s supervisors, has set a benchmark across the entire Air Force.
“We have a 50-year utility contract that we just renewed,” Honey said. “Also, we have a big project with getting new LED lights on base.”
The base’s lighting upgrade project, which anticipates increasing the lighting on base by nearly 400 percent, increases visibility throughout the base’s roadways which will help keep pedestrians safe walking or biking around the installation, and will save the base money per bulb.
“They’re more efficient and drastically brighter,” Honey said. “We have a bunch of the lights set up right now on Patterson [Drive] and at the bus stops.”
Along with the lighting, another project he helped facilitate was the traffic management group’s future pedestrian plan. This plan, in conjunction with the base’s future traffic changes, will create safer roadways for both pedestrians and drivers alike.
“A lot of my specific work was helping with the crosswalk painting and making sure the [crosswalks] are supposed to be,” Honey said.
His work in making his base safer through planned crosswalks and streetlights, all while ensuring the contracts are performed safely and successfully earned Honey this week’s XLer award.