WIESBADEN, Germany — Soldiers will be spending less time honing combat skills and more time scrubbing toilets and mopping hallways after Installation Management Command-Europe recently made cuts to its cleaning contracts.
Until now, local civilian contractors had provided services such as taking out trash, sweeping offices, mopping hallways and cleaning bathrooms at most buildings on Army bases in Europe. But IMCOM-Europe has started a new policy that eliminates cleaning services for office buildings that are occupied by units below a brigade level and reduces contracts for other buildings in a move officials say they hope will save $2 million annually.
Some soldiers say the cleaners will be missed.
“I think it’s better to have the cleaners, so the soldiers can focus on deployment and training,” said Staff Sgt. David Schwartz with the 557th Medical Company in Wiesbaden. “The soldiers need to be focused on training, and I gotta send them to clean the bathrooms. Sometimes it’s a morale killer”.
U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden had 29 cleaning contracts completely cut, most of them on the airfield.
