By JAMES DARCY
PUBLIC AFFAIRS

NAVAIR PATUXENT RIVER, MD—A new Enterprise Rent-A-Car franchise opened for business Sept. 2 in the former site of the old Navy Exchange building on Cedar Point Road. It will be the first car rental agency to operate on station here as the result of a national contract awarded by the Navy Exchange Command to put rental agencies on 16 bases in the United States.

Car rental agencies operating on Navy bases under NEXCOM are common, but a franchise had never been requested for Pax River, according to Dino Tsakonas, general manager of Pax River's Navy Exchange. Last year, when NEXCOM was readying to issue a new contract for on-base rental agencies, Tsakonas was asked if Pax River would like to be included.

"I believed it would be a great service to our customers and visitors to the base, that they wouldn't have to worry about how to get themselves outside the base to rent a car," Tsakonas said.

The contract was competed by NEXCOM on a national level rather than locally, with a number of major car rental companies submitting bids for the 16 different sites. NEXCOM announced the selection of Enterprise for Pax River in May.

Following standard government contracting procedures, the bids came back through an evaluation committee that made a determination of "best value," Tsakonas said. Consideration went to the types of services being offered, pricing and the amount of commission paid back to the Navy Exchange, he said. "No dollar earned by the Navy Exchange leaves the Navy," he added, noting that profits go back into MWR programs.

Any service member or dependent 21 or older are permitted to rent at the new agency for leisure use, while the age restriction will drop to 18 or older for military members with orders necessitating the rental. A credit card will not be required to rent. The agency will be open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. - noon, but will be closed on Sundays.

—USN—

NAVAIR provides advanced warfare technologies through the efforts of a seamless, integrated, worldwide network of aviation technology experts. From aircraft and weapons development to carrier launch and recovery, from sensors to real-time communications to precision targeting, from aircraft and weapons sustainment to state-of-the-art training, NAVAIR provides dominant combat effects and matchless capabilities to the American warfighter.