Grissom Air Reserve Base is a military installation located about 12 miles north of Indianapolis. Since 1994 it has been a combined civilian airport and military base at the Grissom Aeroplex.
Relocation is a fact of life in the military, and if you’re transferred to Grissom Air Reserve Base, you need to know something about self-storage in the area.
Self-Storage in Indianapolis
The weather in Indiana is not what most would consider friendly. Winters are cold and snowy (though in Indianapolis, roads get salted every morning so driving is not a problem), summers are hot and terribly humid, and April to July sees intense thunderstorms and powerful winds. If you need self-storage, get a unit with climate control, or you risk your possessions getting mold damage or worse.
Indianapolis has 151 self-storage facilities with 83,050 units. Since Indianapolis also has about 850,000 residents, that’s approximately one unit per ten people, which is a good ratio for any city. While Grissom Air Reserve Base members live off base, there are about 1,700 people working there with 590 households and 440 families. That means there will be some competition for storage. However, real estate is quite affordable in the city and many people have homes large enough for all their belongings.
Cost of Units in Indianapolis
Reflecting the overall affordability of property in Indianapolis, self-storage units are generally also cheap. One can find a 5’x5’ from about $27 to about $45 per month, or a 10’x10’ from between $75 and $110. You may want to stay closer to the base, though, and prices in the area are comparable to those in Indianapolis.
However, before making up your mind, there are a few things to consider. Clearly an affordable facility close to home is the best option. Still, you may find something cheaper in Indianapolis. If you know you’ll go there only once every month or two, you might save money by renting farther from home.
If you forget everything else, remember this: ask about military discounts. Most facilities offer a discount for active military members with ID. They may or may not provide incentives for reservists, but it never hurts to ask.
Storing Guns
You should be aware up front that most self-storage facilities do not allow gun storage. Whatever you do, do not store your personal firearms in a facility without being sure that it does allow you to keep your weapons there.
Read the article
Storing Your Firearms: Safe Options for Gun Storage on the Storage Front website if you cannot find a self-storage facility willing to let you store your guns. This article has plenty of helpful tips, including alternate safe storage possibilities. It’s important to note that while some facilities do allow gun storage, none allow ammunition.
If You’re Deployed
When you joined the Air Force or the reserves, you understood the possibility of being deployed overseas. Naturally, a deployment could affect your self-storage. However, you’ll be glad to know that the law protects deployed military members well in the self-storage arena.
In order to pay self-storage bills, you have several options. You can set up automatic payments. You can also pay monthly, or several months at a time, via the Internet. Many deployed soldiers have a family member stop by self-storage monthly to pay the bill.
The protection kicks in when you are, for some reason, unable to pay, or it has slipped your mind for an extended period.
Indiana’s self-storage lien law stipulates when a unit can go to auction. Usually, when a tenant doesn’t pay for a unit for a few months, and the company does its due diligence and sends warning notices, the facility can sell the unit at auction.
The military recognizes how difficult a deployment can be, which is the reason for the
Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. This act makes sure that military personnel renting storage get fair treatment and makes it much more difficult for a facility to put your unit up for auction.
