While the cold winter storm blew through campus this week, a team of contractors camped out in the Facility Services building, sleeping on inflatable mattresses and remaining ready to fix any problems that arose during the wintry weather.
David Maharrey, associate executive director of University Facility Services, said the crew stayed from Monday night until Thursday morning, on call to complete any tasks the Emergency Operations Center requested.
“We kept about 18 people consisting of various crafts,” Maharrey said. “High voltage and electricians and utility plumbers and a couple of custodians.”
The team was responsible for campus triage activities, Maharrey said, fixing things as they were needed and spreading sand to combat the slippery ice. The team made sure to solve problems, but did not necessarily complete any permanent repairs.
Maharrey said the University purchased four truckloads of sand ahead of time, costing about $1,200 total, and paid outside contractors about $800 to clear the sand off roads Thursday.
The other current operations around campus, including an asbestos cleaning project and construction on various sites, were paused as of Monday, said Tammy Millican, assistant director of Facility Services.
Millican said the different contractors working on the projects had inclement weather days built into their contracts, so the storm did not cost the University extra in that area.
Maharrey said the main source of extra expense to the University because of the storm was manpower costs from having to pay the crew for overtime.
“We didn’t want them on the road back and forth,” Maharrey said. “They responded to different calls through the night. Residential Life also had their own custodians.”
The exact cost of the storm is hard to measure, Maharrey said, because they were doing standard operating procedures.
“We saw the storm coming and decided to get ahead of it a little bit,” Maharrey said.