Straight Talk: Facility changes Published Feb. 16, 2012 By Col. Stacy L. Yike 66th Air Base Group commander HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. -- This week I want to focus on some questions I have received about the upcoming changes at several of our facilities. It appears my information at the Electronic Systems Center commander's call a few weeks ago may have caused some confusion, so I would like to take some time here to provide some clarification. Youth Center The Youth Center will remain open and youth summer camps will continue! We are diverting many of our resources from other facilities to maintain this very critical capacity of our children. In addition, the Youth Center is taking on the children's library collection and will continue to support the weekly storytime program held from 10:15 to 11 a.m. every Wednesday. The transition will be seamless to all participants. Youth Leagues We will no longer be offering youth sports leagues on base for our children. Given the ability for the community to provide excellent league play for all ages, we felt it was not the best use of resources to continue maintaining our very small program that was serving a much smaller percentage of our military families than the Youth Center. The good news is that the communities offer a significantly more robust program with more sports and more assistance than we can do alone here on base. The sports and recreation departments of Bedford, Lexington and Lincoln have been so supportive of this process and brought many new and exciting options to the table to benefit our kids. The Youth Center will continue to provide all the resources you need to sign up in the local community, including dates, contact information and application forms to help you make this transition. The Youth Center is also looking into what new needs may exist, such as carpooling, so head over there now to learn more! Library We will be transitioning the library to a resource center sometime this summer. What is a resource center? Well, it is a gathering place where you can access a computer for research or print off tax forms. You can study or research for your professional military education classes. We will continue to have the Chief of Staff of the Air Force military reading list on hand and will maintain a small military history library, as well as our language programs. As I mentioned above, the children's library will be moving into the Youth Center, making it closer to housing and continuing the vital capacity for our youth. The library will continue storytime every Wednesday until the Youth Center picks it up. We hope this will also encourage more pre-teens and teens to read more with a visible library in their favorite hang-out spot. I appreciate all the inputs we have received from so many of you, both expressing support for the current services we offer and providing inputs on what you would like to see continue. My hat is off to the phenomenal 66th Force Support Squadron team who has been working fast and furious to ensure that we will continue to provide the very best possible services for the majority of Team Hanscom with the resources that we have. Your feedback is a critical component of that process, so keep it coming!