Heroes in blue coveralls

Sure, it’s sunny and warm now, but think back a couple of weeks when the campus was covered with snow, then ice, then even more snow. On those days when the University was closed or on a delayed schedule, most employees could hit the snooze button and roll back over.

Most, but not all. Faster than a speeding cold front and stronger than an Arctic blast, the weather heroes were on the job as early as 4 a.m., keeping campus safe. Posing most days as mild-mannered Grounds Services employees, these workers (about 90 in all) become heroes in dark blue coveralls and extra gloves whenever winter weather hits.

The weather heroes plow the parking lots, spray brine on the roads and shovel the sidewalks. Because of them, ambulances don’t slip on icy pavement to get to the emergency room. Hungry students can walk safely to the nearest dining hall. And employees whose cars are trapped in snowy parking lots can drive out without getting stuck.

It’s a responsibility that comes with the job.

“When I signed on, I signed on for it. I knew I had to be here, all conditions,” said grounds technician and crew leader Kittie Allen.

Usually her job is landscape maintenance of beds, turf and roof gardens. But when it snows or sleets, she tows the salt wagon. The work is “scary sometimes,” she said. “I’m out there on the ice with all the other cars. And a tractor doesn’t mean you don’t slide on ice. You do.”

Hills are especially tricky, she said, because she has to climb them on her tractor in reverse, trailer first, throwing sand and salt to get some traction. The steep hills leading to the baseball stadium are the worst. “I slid all the way to the bottom of Boshamer Stadium one time,” she said. “It was not fun.”

One recent morning, the roads were so icy that even Allen couldn’t get to work – the first bad-weather day she’s missed in 19 years. Her Volkswagen kept slipping toward a creek when she went downhill. So she followed her own advice to non-emergency workers: Stay home until the road is clear.

Lance Long, whose regular job is pest management, also tows the salt wagon, shovels snow and makes brine to put on the pavement before the snow or ice falls. After the storm, he helps clean up fallen branches and trees.

Long worked in Chicago for 12 years, so cold weather and snow aren’t new to him. But here, “the ice was really dangerous. We really had to focus on that.” When making the anti-icing brine, his hands got really cold and wet. “Somehow the salt makes it colder,” he said.

Forey Holt, an irrigation assistant, wore three layers of clothes to work in the snow and drank plenty of coffee to keep warm. “They have been very long, the last couple of weeks, said Holt, who put in a few 10- and 12-hour days because of the snow and ice. “I was still tired several days later.”

Holt operated a small Dingo snow plow those days. Removing the snow wasn’t so hard, but breaking up the ice was tough, even with the Dingo. “You keep going over it and over it. You put the blade as hard as you can down and keep chipping and chipping,” he said. “If you can’t do it, you scrape off what you can and wait for people to come by with ice melt and you hit it again that afternoon.”

A university grounds department worker scrapes snow from a walkway.

As he plowed, crew members behind him shoveled and spread ice melt on the sidewalks. The toughest areas for the shovelers were stairways. “The whole campus, going up to the Pit area – there’s a lot of steps going through there to shovel,” he said. “I did some of that myself.”

Holt got frustrated when he had to re-clear sidewalks that big state road plows had covered again. But overall he felt good about the job. “When students did finally start moving at 8, 9 o’clock that morning, I don’t know how many students I had come up to me and say thank you,” he said. “Everyone’s super-appreciative. I know they don’t know how much work goes into all of it, but I do know they’re happy not to slip and fall going to class.’

In fact, some students were too polite, like one who walked around Holt so she wouldn’t disturb his work. She took a tumble on the ice near Caudill Labs. “Take the cleared path,” Holt advises. “When we’re in the way, just tell us to move. Don’t walk around us because that’s just more dangerous for everyone,” he said.

It’s hard work clearing the campus of ice, snow and fallen branches, but it’s just part of the job for these weather heroes. As Holt said, “That’s what we’re there for, you know.”