Warmer weather means work for USU employees
Utah State University’s maintenance and landscaping crew is busy at work preparing campus for the warm weather.
Ellen Newell, landscape manager at USU, said her staff of 15 full-time employees and 20 to 30 student part-time employees is working on cleaning up.
Sweeping the roads and gutters and raking around shrubs and flower beds are the first focuses of the cleanup. Removal of chunks of sod and tree branches damaged by snow plows, leaves missed in the fall, and massive litter begins as soon as the snow melts.
The university switched from using sand and salt on the roads during the winter to magnesium chloride three or four years ago, said Darrell Hart, director of the Physical Plant. Magnesium chloride isn’t left behind like sand and saves time and money.
The campus doesn’t have access to irrigation water until the middle of May, so greening up campus for graduation is a challenge – that’s why they plant so many pansies, Newell said.
Planted in the fall, these flowers survive the winter and bloom again as temperatures warm, Newell said.
“They should look very well for graduation,” Newell said.
Hart said they have added more perennial flowers, which go dormant in the winter and return in the spring. Annuals can’t be planted until the end of May, when Cache Valley is out of frost danger and water is available.
Landscaping will start mowing lawns when they dry out more, Newell said. Typically, the grass needs mowing by the end of March or early April. Because the lawn was fertilized in the fall, it doesn’t need it this spring, Newell said.
The lawn is also aerated – plugs of dirt are pulled out to put air back into the soil. Newell said soil is made up of minerals, air and water. When people walk on grass while it’s wet, the soil is compacted and air is pushed out.
“When the lawns are wet, it really is better to stay off of them,” Newell said.
When there isn’t air, the roots are unable to grow; it’s like they’re in cement, Newell said.
She said sod isn’t replaced on the “cow trails,” or dirt paths worn into the lawn, because it’s a waste of money.
Other projects are starting as the weather gets better. Individual chillers are being put back in for the summer months. Each building has its own, Hart said, so it takes a lot of time for all of those to be installed.
He said USU is moving toward central cooling, which is part of the reason for the new piping system through central campus.
Other construction projects include the new heating plant, a new electrical system for the Ray B. West building, and re-roofing the Spectrum.
“The Legislature was good to us this year,” Hart said. Funding for many projects was provided.
As the piping project gets underway, utilities are being located along its path, which account for the piles of gravel filling the holes back in, Hart said.
Commencement this year will be redirected around the construction site. Typically the processional for graduation is through central campus, right where trenches will be dug to lay the pipes, Hart said. Instead, it will start at the Quad and continue along 800 East to the west entrance of the Spectrum.
Landscaping is working on cleaning the path, Newell said, and is working to get the Greek houses’ landscapes ready, as well.
Hart said they are also working to equip the sound system to accommodate the west side of campus for the processional.
A staff of nearly 300 people is behind the scenes involved in maintenance work such as painting, roof inspection, landscaping and custodial duties, Hart said.
“Campus appearance has always been important,” Hart said. He said student support during all of the construction going on around campus is helpful.
A customer service line has been set up for students to voice concerns at 797-3535 or 797-1947.