Posted: 02/28/07

Can you dig it?
Physical plant responds to record snowfall

Mark Gould | tech editor
mgould@smcvt.edu

Dave Cutler, director of physical plant, says the storm will cost his department between $23,000 and $25,000 excluding regular wages. (Mark Gould, photo)

The Valentine's Day snowstorm
dumped a record snowfall in Burlington, Vt. with 25.3 inches of snow falling in a 24-hour period according to the National Weather Service in South Burlington. And while Vermont’s romantics spent the evening at home, members of the Physical Plant staff manned plow trucks in near-whiteout conditions to plow enormous snow piles that are only now starting to melt.

James Celotti, a grounds area crew specialist, was one of several Physical Plant staff members who never made it home that night. Celotti slept on the couch in the break room, getting only three hours of sleep before he rose at 1 a.m. to plow until noon, he says.

“You’re thinking about the storm, and you’re not home,” he says. “You can’t sleep that good, so you pretty much just rest.”

The cost of cleanup

Dave Cutler, director of Physical Plant, says the storm will cost his department between $23,000 and $25,000, excluding regular wages. This figure includes overtime labor, rental equipment, replacement parts, and fuel. Cutler is proud of his crew’s ability to work together to clear the snow, he says.

During the plowing, two lightpoles were knocked over, Cutler says. (Mark Gould, photo)

“When there is a storm of that magnitude, we all help each other out,” he says. “Carpenters and electricians will be shoveling the library steps.”

Cutler is pleased with the response by Physical Plant, though if given greater financial resources, the snow could be plowed quicker, he says.

“Given the resources we’ve got, I’m 100 percent satisfied with the response,” he says. “If I had two more bucket loaders for $90,000 a pop, I could respond a lot quicker, but that’s another couple hundred dollars on everybody’s tuition.”

During the course of the plowing, two campus light poles were knocked over, Cutler says.

“Guys that had been in a piece of equipment for 17 hours straight forget to look behind them, and back over a light pole," he says. "More likely the piece of equipment slid sideways on him."

Plowing strategy

Because of the heavy snowfall, Physical Plant had to prioritize, plowing and shoveling in a specific order, Cutler says.

“Their number one goal was to plow the fire and rescue and main campus road,” he says. “Food service would be the next priority. There are five or six walkways on campus we concentrate on.”

Since students were leaving for break shortly after the storm, Cutler decided not to ask them to relocate their cars to alleviate plowing, he says.

“If the students were not going home, we would have moved all the cars out of one lot, cleaned that lot, and let those cars go back, and then pick another lot,” he says. “We didn’t have to inconvenience the students and have them move their vehicles.”

Celotti says it is difficult to plow a college campus because there are so many vehicles and people walking around.

“You’re always on edge,” he says. “You’ve got cars all around you, and students running around.”

One crew worked 36 hours, with a five hour break, and one man plowed for 19 hours straight, Cutler says. Physical Plant’s vehicles do not require CDL licenses, which restrict hours-of-rest to hours-of-driving ratios, he says.

“Once we start getting over a twelve-hour day, we let it go to their judgment, because the last thing I want is somebody to be so tired that they back over a student or something,” he says.

Celotti says fatigue becomes an issue when plowing for long periods of time.

“You get tired because you’re constantly looking behind you, and your neck gets stiff,” he says. “If you plow for 15 hours, you get out of the truck and you can barely walk because you’re so stiff.”

Working with students

Physical Plant worked with students to help get their cars out, Cutler says.

“Students play a real merry-go-round with the snow, and unfortunately, because we have so many cars, we don’t have a lot of places to push snow,” he says.

Plowing close to snow-covered cars can be difficult, because of the risk of hitting bumpers, Cutler says.

“Students get upset because they think we’re purposely plowing them in, but your plow can catch a chunk of ice and push you sideways, and we’re really not
excited about buying cars,” he says.

Cars parked near the tennis courts were burried by large snow drifts on Thursday, Feb. 15. It is impossible to plow right up to a car, Cutler says. (Mark Gould, photo)

Physical Plant has one snow blower that can blow snow up to 150 feet, which it used to clear snow near student’s bumpers, Cutler says.

“No one plows right up to a car, you physically can't,” he says. “My crew helped students shovel a lot of cars, but that’s not really under our normal function.”

Jenna Foderaro, sophomore and resident of Linnehan Hall says she was frustrated that Physical Plant neglected to plow north campus until several days after the storm.

“It was very inconvenient for us because our parking lot didn’t get plowed until three or four days after the storm, so we couldn’t leave if we wanted to,” Foderaro says.

With no way to access her car, Foderaro says she was forced to take the bus. But when the bus stopped running one evening, and Sloane Hall was closed, many students had to find other ways to get dinner, she says.

“Sloane was closed and we had no way to get to Alliot,” she says. “The bus stopped, so people walked, or just didn’t go. I know quite a few people who slept on main campus because they had no way of getting back.”

Next year, Cutler will ask for some new equipment to deal with large storms, he says.

“It’s a cost issue more than a response issue,” he says. "Could we do better? Absolutely, but we’d need a lot more financial resources to do that."

Also for next year, Cutler says he wants to do more to help the staff that are snowed in on campus, so workers like Celotti won’t have to sleep on the couch.

“The next time we might consider getting a couple of rooms at the Days Inn,” Cutler says.