CHELSEA ANN BARON
Special to The Leader
What’s the deal with all the ice around campus?
If you haven’t seen it, you’ve probably heard about students slipping in parking lots and on the sidewalks.
Alex Wagner, a sophomore international studies and Spanish major, has experienced the ice firsthand. She’s slipped more than once while on her way to classes.
Where does she slip the most? On her way from Hemingway Hall.
“I honestly think it’s part of keeping the student[s] safe to have a good plow system, and they’re failing,” said Wagner.
Other students have experienced the ice and snow a little farther away from the academic buildings.
“I parked in about three inches of snow in the townhouse lot,” said Katie Fink.
Fink, a junior chemistry major, also mentioned how she slipped on black ice while walking from the townhouses to her car.
“Fredonia gets so much snow and they still don’t know how to clean it up,” said Fink.
Are the grounds employees actually failing, or is there more behind it?
After speaking with Kevin Cloos, director of Facilities Services, and Richard Newton, head grounds supervisor, it was evident that they are working as hard as possible to keep the grounds clear.
“When cars are parked in the lots, there isn’t much the plows can do,” said Cloos. “We can’t get in between cars. We can’t get to the parking lots, we’re just stuck.”
Newton also mentioned how difficult it is to plow on campus when the crew has to pause and wait for students walking to and from classes.
“When the students are walking to classes, it makes it tough to get down the sidewalk. We have to sit there and wait,” said Newton.
There are 10 employees, including Newton, working to keep the eight miles of sidewalk, three and a half miles of road and over 3,000 parking spaces cleared and salted.
Cloos said, in total, there are roughly 21 acres of paved areas on campus.
Out of the 10 employees, only five of those are “seasoned employees,” meaning they are trained on all of the equipment.
Although the grounds personnel are in charge of keeping most of campus cleared, places such as entrances, exits, handicap ramps and stairways are the responsibility of the custodial staff.
Why is there still ice everywhere? There is only so much that salt can do.
“If it gets below a certain temperature, the salt doesn’t work very well,” said Newton.
“Each storm is different,” he said. “When it’s snowing out, it’s a waste to put salt down.”
This is because when the plows come through, the salt gets removed before it’s had time to melt the ice.
Salt used in parking lots is more effective because of the weight and friction of vehicles, whereas sidewalks receive less traffic.
Like the salt, plowing only helps so much if the snow continues to fall.
“We may have cleaned [pathways] 20 minutes before class, but it snowed so heavy by the time [students] go to class they don’t even realize we were there,” said Cloos.
As does every job, the grounds crew has its priorities.
Roadways are top priority so emergency vehicles can access campus. Commuter lots for faculty and staff must be cleared, as well as the sidewalks.
“We make sure the areas around the busiest buildings are taken care of first,” said Newton.
Dorm buildings where disabled students live are another top priority.
“We work with the Office of Student Disabilities and they provide a list of the routes and the locations [of] the students, [their] schedule[s], … what [residence] hall they live in and what building their classes are in, so [that] we can try to anticipate getting out before they do,” said Cloos.
Timing is everything. Dorms and academic buildings are taken care of around 7 a.m. to make travel the most efficient.
If the temperature is in the low teens, it’s safe for students to assume the salt is not working properly.