FORT JOHNSON, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 19, 2024--
Corvias is proud to announce a series of significant enhancements completed at Fort Johnson as part of an ongoing commitment to supporting military readiness and quality of life for service members and their families. These upgrades reflect the dedication to improving facilities, ensuring readiness and resiliency, and creating a safe, supportive environment for the community.
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Key Enhancements and Projects
Over the past two years, Corvias has made substantial strides in upgrading Fort Johnson’s homes and infrastructure, with numerous projects now complete or nearing completion by mid-2025.
These upgrades include:
Renovations: A comprehensive renovation project which includes 185 medium-scale renovations, 1,058 exterior renovations, and 83 mansard roof conversions. All renovations are expected to be completed by March 2025.
Playground Installations: Four new playgrounds were constructed to provide safe and enjoyable recreational spaces for children.
Road and Sidewalk Repairs: A series of crucial road and sidewalk repairs are underway to improve access and safety for the family housing community’s residents. Notable projects on residential streets are completed or nearing completion.
Geothermal Upgrades: A total of 153 homes have received geothermal upgrades and 327 more are slated, improving heating and cooling comfort, energy efficiency and sustainability.
Site Grading, Concrete, and Foundation Repairs: Four foundation repairs, along with site grading and concrete work, are expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
ESPC Project: The Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) Project offers high-efficiency upgrades across the installation, with guaranteed energy cost savings of $1.3 million annually. These improvements, completed at no upfront cost to the project, are helping to create a more energy-efficient Fort Johnson.
Solar Project: Corvias is also making strides toward sustainability with the implementation of a solar project, which will allow the family housing community to derive 40 percent of its energy from renewable sources and stabilize energy costs.
“We are excited about the positive impact these improvements will have on the residents of Fort Johnson, and we remain committed to providing high-quality, sustainable living environments for the military community,” Peter Therrell, Senior Vice President for Asset Management for Corvias said.
Looking Ahead
As Fort Johnson continues to evolve, Corvias will remain focused on delivering innovative solutions to further improve the installation. These ongoing enhancements align with broader goals to support military families, enhance quality of life, and ensure the continued operational success of Fort Johnson.
For further updates on ongoing projects and developments at Fort Johnson, visit: https://www.corvias.com/projects/fort-johnson.
About Corvias
Corvias partners with the Department of Defense and higher education institutions to solve infrastructure and energy resiliency challenges and to create long-term, sustainable value through our unique Solutions Through Partnerships ® approach. Corvias partnerships enhance the well-being in our communities, including at the largest renewable energy project in Kansas and at resiliency projects nationwide. Our more than 72,000 residents consistently highly rank the courtesy and professionalism of our maintenance and leasing personnel. To learn more, please visit: www.corvias.com.
Over the past two years, Corvias has made substantial strides in upgrading Fort Johnson’s homes and infrastructure, including community areas like pickleball courts that offer a supportive community environment and enhance quality of life for service members and their families. (Photo: Business Wire)
A total of 153 homes have received geothermal upgrades and 327 more are slated across Fort Johnson, improving heating and cooling comfort, energy efficiency and sustainability. (Photo: Business Wire)
LONDON (AP) — It’s a photo that sent a tremor through British politics: Elon Musk flanked by British politician Nigel Farage and a wealthy backer, in front of a gilt-framed painting of a young Donald Trump.
Taken this week at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the image suggested that Musk, a key player in the incoming U.S. administration, could soon turn his disruptive attention to the U.K.
Farage, Trump’s highest-profile British champion, confirmed talks are underway about Musk making a hefty donation to Farage's party Reform U.K. The Times of London reported it could be as much as $100 million, which would be far and away the largest political donation in U.K. history. The reports have sparked calls for Britain’s rules on political donations to be tightened — quickly.
“We did discuss money,” Farage told broadcaster GB News after the meeting with Musk. “That’s a negotiation we will go back and have again. He is not against giving us money. He hasn’t fully decided whether he will.”
Britain has strict limits on how much political parties can spend on elections, but they can accept unlimited donations, as long as the donors are U.K. voters or companies registered in Britain. Musk’s social network X has a British arm, Twitter U.K. Ltd., with a registered address in London.
Critics say that is a loophole that allows foreign influence in U.K. politics. The voting watchdog, the Electoral Commission, is calling for changes including limiting the amount a company can donate, so that it can't put in more money than it earns in Britain.
“It’s crucial that U.K. voters have trust in the financing of our political system,” the commission's chief executive Vijay Rangarajan told The Guardian. “The system needs strengthening, and we have been calling for changes to the law since 2013, to protect the electoral system from foreign interference.”
Britain’s center-left Labour Party pledged during the summer election campaign to tighten the rules on political donations, though legislation is not scheduled in the coming year. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's spokesman Dave Pares said Wednesday that work is already underway to “reinforce existing safeguards” against “impermissible proxy donations.”
Both the Labour government and the right-of-center opposition Conservatives are trying to figure out how to deal with Musk, who has taken a keen interest in the U.K. – and seemingly formed a strong dislike for Starmer.
Musk often posts on X about the U.K., retweeting criticism of Starmer and the hashtag TwoTierKeir – shorthand for an unsubstantiated claim that Britain has “two-tier policing,” with far-right protesters treated more harshly than pro-Palestinian or Black Lives Matter demonstrators. Musk has compared British attempts to weed out online misinformation to the Soviet Union, and during summer anti-immigrant violence across the U.K. tweeted that “civil war is inevitable.”
Farage has echoed some of those themes in his own social media output and his party’s anti-“woke” agenda, which includes pledges to slash immigration, scrap green-energy targets and leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
Founded in 2021, Reform U.K. is the latest in a string of small hard-right parties led by Farage that have had limited electoral success, but an outsized influence on British politics. Farage’s opposition to the European Union helped push the country toward voting in 2016 to leave the bloc, a seismic political and economic break with the U.K.’s nearest neighbors.
Reform U.K. won just five of the 650 seats in the House of Commons in July’s election, but came second in dozens more and secured 14% of the vote. Now it is pushing for fast growth, trying to professionalize its previously ramshackle organization and holding gatherings around the U.K. to recruit new members.
Farage, a strong communicator who has embraced TikTok and other platforms, aims to emulate Trump’s success in using the power of personality and social media to reach the “bro vote” — young men who are traditionally less likely to turn out at election time.
Farage told GB News that Musk has “already given me considerable help – understanding the process from start to finish, reaching disaffected communities who frankly feel there’s no point voting for anybody.”
The electoral power of social media was on show recently in Romania, where far-right candidate Călin Georgescu came from nowhere to win the first round of the presidential election in November, aided in part by a flood of TikTok videos promoting his campaign. Amid allegations that Russia had organized the social media campaign to back Georgescu, Romania’s Constitutional Court canceled the presidential election runoff two days before it was due to take place.
With Britain’s Conservative Party trying to recover from its worst election result since 1832, Farage dreams of making Reform the main opposition – or even the government — after the next election, due by 2029.
That’s a long shot, but Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said a big donation from Musk could have “disruptive potential in all sorts of ways.”
He said Musk’s money would give Reform “the opportunity to try and build up a serious campaign organization, which is something that they have generally lacked.”
“It’s certainly adding a new joker to the pack of cards in British politics,” Ford said. “We’ve had no shortage of surprising developments here in the past few years. And maybe this is the next one.”
A previous version of this story incorrectly gave the reported amount of the donation as 100 million pounds. It is $100 million.
FILE - President-elect Donald Trump listens to Elon Musk as he arrives to watch SpaceX's mega rocket Starship lift off for a test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, Nov. 19, 2024. (Brandon Bell/Pool via AP, File)
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaks during the New York Young Republican Club's annual gala at Cipriani Wall Street, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
