Military mom moving to Fort Drum, NY (Watertown, Ira: 2009, apartment)

[movingtodrum]

Originally Posted by joeyann312

What is "801 Housing?" From the info I am gathering is it housing off post that is losing its contract. And where is the 801 housing located at Ft. Drum. Any all info would be great! Thanks!

I am living in 801 housing now near Fort Drum. Soon to be owned my a private company on Jan 3. After that it will have nothing to do with the Army. We signed a lease paid a deposit and a pet deposit. 801 is Fort Drum housing. Some of it still is and has different dates for when they go private. I live in Calcium NY (Woodcliff) the closest housing to base one mile, also the smallest. It is 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath but still smaller then what I am used to. There also are 2 bedrooms here. We pay $1100 plus utilities that they decided should be around $286 a month extra. Even though the military monitored the utilities at $234 that is not what they are going to charge. My husband is an E7 so our BAH is $1235. We pay the top amount $1100 for rent but others have lower BAH so they pay their BAH plus utilities. All the 801 housing aren't run by the same companies. There is housing pretty far away. Carthage, West Carthage, Governor, Lowville are all run by the same company, but all have different prices. Like Carthage and West Carthage are $1050 a month for a 3 bed flat rate it isn't different no matter what your rank is. That is also 8 miles from the gate. Gas is $3.40 a gallon here so you really aren't saving any money. Governor is really far about 30 miles and is a little cheaper too I think $961 for a 3 bed or somewhere around there but I'm not sure how much it is. Lowville is even farther. Watertown is the most expensive at $1225 for a 3 bedroom. Way too much money. On the other side my street the housing in Calcium their army lease isn't up until June of 08. But nothing is open. Also if you live in 801 housing that is still under contract with the military here is one in Laray which is for lower enlisted only and others that haven't expired yet you still have no access to the community centers on base or any of parks they made for housing. They have gyms and indoor playgrounds in each neighborhood. Those are only for the mountain community home residents. Our wait is 2 years to get on base. Help all this helps.

[joeyann312]

Thanks Movingtodrum! That was a great help. I guess my big favor now would be to see if you can recall the names of the communities - well just the Carthage, W Carthage, and Governor so that I can look them up on the web as well. Looking at info on MCH site your waiting period for a 3 bedroom so be 10-12 months. Any clue how accute any info is? I have no problem living on post - I've been doing for the past 5 1/2 yrs. All I know is that I want to drive up to Drum check into an office and get the keys. Thanks!

[joeyann312]

Hey Movingtodrum. I'm back again! I just reread my email and towards the end of it I meant to write that I have lived off post for the past 5 1/2 years not on. Because I feel that I have not been apart of the military community for so long, I feel clueless. Turns out that we are going to need a 4 bedroom not a 3. If you could start over on going to Drum and dealing with housing - what would you do and change to make your transition easier? Any help would be great (from you and anyone else)! Thanks!

[joeyann312]

I found a wonderful site for those apart of the military looking for housing anywhere! Hope it helps you out the way it is helping me. www.ahrn.com (ahrn stands for Automated Housing Referral Network)

Also, don't forget "craigslist" there are loads of listings there as well.

[jplmr]

Ive been here at fort drum for awhile now thank goodness my husband reenlisted during his deployment and we are headed to fort carson. The housing is in a bit of a crunch. For you husbands rank it shouldnt be to bad. Im stuck in a 2 bedroom because the wait for a 3 bedroom was 12-18 months last October and still havent heard anything yet. Now that I have called they said the wait is 24months. I have a 8 year old boy and a 8 month old girl. I know many spouses that go home during deployments because the lack of activities and entertainment so depression sets in. On good thing is that the housing that was off post is no longer military housing because they didnt renew the lease so they are no opening up for rent. I graduated from Carthage High 10 years ago and it was a wonderfull school. My son attends the Indian River school district and it seems to be good. I wouldnt let my son go to Watertown High nor would I live in Watertown. I had to clear a house for a friend that left for Iraq. I had an awfull time and they ended up paying almost $2000 for damages. I worked for a couple days and had the house spot less. They lifted up the carpets to check for any stains on the pad under the carpet and seen a koolaid stain and they had to pay to replace the whole pad and carpet. I wish I would have known the hassle of moving out of quarters before I moved in. I would suggest for anyone to live off post if they can afford it. The housing here is awfull...even the new ones, they were built to fast and are falling apart already.

[Njrover0216]

I grew up in Watertown and went to all Watertown schools. I left when I was 23. I married a soldier at Fort Drum and spent 1 year on base there. In my opinion General Brown, Carthage, South Jeff and Watertown are all good schools. As far as elementary schools in Watetown I would recommend Sherman or Knickerbocker schools. When I was growing up Indian River did not do well testing wise, sports wise and they had to have security guards because there was a lot of fighting. Watertown and Carthage dominate in sports because of their school sizes. General Brown has improved a great deal and I hear that overall it is the school to get into. To go to General Brown you would look into living in Brownville, Dexter region. If you get offered housing in Clayton do not take it. Clayton is beautiful in the summer but it is a heck of a haul to Fort Drum in the winter and the snow. If you would like any infomation on where are nice places to live in Watertown feel free to PM me. Keep in mind to use this site as a guidance and not take what 1 or 2 people say as the way it is. I was told that the current community I live in was the least desireable when I first moved to Maryland. Come to find out it is the most prestigious town in my county and has all blue ribbon schools. A site that I use often to see how the schools are is GreatSchools.net. That will give you the test scores, school ratings, demographics of the school, student teacher ratio. I can imagine that Indian River is getting pretty full out there, have they put trailers into the parking lots yet? I heard that was coming next. They really need to build another school to help support Fort Drum, since 80% of people that live on Drum go to Indian River, on top of the people living in Evans Mills, Philly, etc. Again anyone feel free to PM me and I can answer pretty much any of your questions. I have posted previously on here a great deal of info, feel free to go back and search.

[tamburm]

Originally Posted by nylauren

I grew up in Watertown and will offer some more details to help you before your move. Watertown is a safe city as it is small and doesn't have the large city problems. Any school district your children attend will be fine. New York has high quality schools compared to other parts of the country. I am a teacher and work in the south now. I miss the New York State schools.

I attended Watertown schools and received a great education. The elementary schools were K-3 but I believe this past year they switched to k-4so that the intermediate school would be just grades 5 and 6. The intermediate school has a planetarium in it.

Watertown has grown a lot in the last few years and several new businesses just opened. There is a mall in Watertown called Salmon Run Mall. The anchor stores are Sears, JC Penney, The Bon Ton, Best Buy and Dicks Sporting Goods. A new shopping area opened almost across the street from the mall and has a Kohl's, Bed Bath Beyond, Target, and Petco.

Watertown also has a Walmart, a Sam's Club, Lowe's and Home Depot. A Super Walmart opened near Fort Drum.

As for restaurants in Watertown, there are plenty with a wide variety of foods. There are locally owned Italian restaurants. There are a lot of chain restaurants from the Cracker Barrel to Red Lobster, to Applebees, a steakhouse opened near Target, Panera Bread, Ruby Tuesday's, and Ponderosa and I'm sure there are others I forgot. In Sacket's Harbor, the Tin Pan Galley is popular.

Watertown has a lot of fast food too. There is Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, Long John Silver, Arby's, Sbarro, Taco Bell, and Subway.

Watertown is pretty close to the Canadian border so trips to Canada will be options. Kingston is likely the closest Canadian city. Toronto is around 3 hours and Montreal 4 hours.

Syracuse is an hour south and has more culture and activities. It has three shopping malls, a hockey team, AAA baseball team, the Syracuse University sports teams, two theatre groups, an opera, a nice zoo. The State Fair is held in Syracuse.

Watertown has a low cost of living and the house prices are low if you decide not to live in military housing. From what I remember, on base housing was for single soldiers and the families lived in military housing throughout the community.

If you have any other questions, feel free to contact me.

we will be relocating to drum in april 08. We will need a 4 bedroom and I understand the wait list is 2 years for on post housing. What is the best area to look for? We see several townhouse apartments on the military website for authorized off post rentals. Some that looked good on the web sites were: woodcliff, warcic thornhill constitution court.....do you know anything about these rentals and if they are decent places for families? We have 3 children, a boy 17, and two girls ages 15 and 8. My husband is an E6 and hopefully soon on the 7 list. We currently live in OK and I have been attending college to attain my elementary education degree, do you know of any 4 year colleges? (I will most likely have to give up my elem. ed. degree and change to something else as the nearest college that I can find is more than an hour away) I may be interested in finding employment at an elementary school....are substitute teachers in high demand there? What are the requirements? please e-mail any info that you can supply me with at tamburm@juno.com

[jplmr]

try to live as close as possible to base. All the roads coming in from surronding areas can be a vigarous drive during the winter due to the open farmlands. Woodcliff just opened for renting and its less than a 5 min drive. It was military housing but the military didnt renew their contracts. It goes by your BAH sometimes less. Many of the new townhouses that are going up are very expensive. People here seem to think that because you are in the military you have$$$$$$$$$$$$$. I would check with the housing office here. They are helpfull with finding housing off post.

[Njrover0216]

The drive from Watertown to Fort Drum is not that bad. When my husband and I first got married we lived in WAtertown and he commuted to Fort Drum. The roads leading to Fort Drum do not get that bad, and if it does it is only for about 2 miles. Then you are out of it. I think people up there have realized that military get a thing called BAH, and with the housing shortage that means there is a high demand. It is called the supply-demand factor. Please look at the whole ordeal from the locals eyes: their entire city is changing whether they want it too or not, rent is going up but the pay for locals is not. A great deal of locals can not afford the rent anymore because the rent is pushed up into 800+ range while they are still making min. wage. There are not a lot of high tech jobs there, most locals work at rest, the mall, stores, etc. So when you get your BAH and you have to use your BAH for your rent and utilities(electric and water) remember that is what your BAH is for, it is not to pay cable, phone, and whatever else you want. I have a friend here in Annapolis whose husband is very high ranking and gets 2100 a month for BAH. She chose to go out and purchase a 400K home, and now complains that her BAH doesnt cover all her bills. She could of easily rented a home here for 1600, her electric bill would of been about 200 and her water bill would be about 90 bucks every 3 months...that gave her plenty of money left over. When you live in on base housing what do they pay? Your rent, electric and water...What is the average soldier getting up there now for BAH? You want a SHOCKER...when my husband was there in 2000 we recieved 450 a month for BAH!

[Njrover0216]

BASIC ALLOWANCE FOR HOUSING (broken link)

This site shows you the 2007 rates for BAH in Fort Drum, NY. And amazingly Congress just passed that on an average BAH is going to go up 7.3%, it was only 3.5% last year! WOW, I hope the locals do not get wind of this! Rent might even go up more?