2008 Woodie Awards
Winter maintenance costs rise this year
By Frank Skrip
Rocket News Editor
Issue date: 4/15/05 Section: News
Although the winter season is now behind Slippery Rock University, the facilities and planning department is beginning to establish its plans and budget for next year.
In recent years, SRU has stayed relatively consistent regarding how much money is spent on winter maintenance, Director of Campus Service Michael Kukawa said. The average amount is about $22,000 each winter.
Due to the acquisition of a new pick-up truck, that amount increased $24,000 for a total of $46,000 this year.
"Year after year, there are always things that break down and need replaced," Kukawa said. "This year it just happened to be one of the more expensive things that needed replacing."
The other major contributor to this amount was salt for the roads and walkways. In all, $14,256 was spent on salt this year with $10,272 of that coming from bulk salt alone.
Other forms of salt are calcium, which is used for newer walkways due to the fact that it is non-corrosive, and bag salt, which is bought for its easy manageability.
The bulk salt is bought from the state at $34.24 per ton. SRU puts in a bid for its allotment of salt in April and must purchase at least 80 percent of its allotment, Kukawa said. This year's allotment was 300 tons of bulk salt and there was about 30 tons leftover.
Other factors that make up the winter costs are mechanical parts for the dump trucks, plows, pick-up trucks, tractors, and other snow removal devices, and crew member overtime.
Kukawa said that this season alone there was more than 650 hours of overtime used.
Official standards for SRU's snow removal are in fact better than PennDot's standards, Kukawa said.
While PennDot normally plows and salts the roads until they are initially safe, SRU continues to keep up with not only the roads, but the sidewalks as well.
"I'm very confident that we can handle most anything that hits us," Kukawa said. "We try to do the best we can."
"We know that students and their parents pay a lot of money to come here, so they expect safety and good work."
One common misconception, Kukawa said, is that there are more crew members during the winter months. There are actually more maintenance workers in the summer.
"In the summer we hire a fair amount of temporary employees to do a lot of outside work," Kukawa said. "The winter has a lot of crunch time jobs that need done quickly and efficiently, while the summer usually consists of more drawn out projects."
In recent years, SRU has stayed relatively consistent regarding how much money is spent on winter maintenance, Director of Campus Service Michael Kukawa said. The average amount is about $22,000 each winter.
Due to the acquisition of a new pick-up truck, that amount increased $24,000 for a total of $46,000 this year.
"Year after year, there are always things that break down and need replaced," Kukawa said. "This year it just happened to be one of the more expensive things that needed replacing."
The other major contributor to this amount was salt for the roads and walkways. In all, $14,256 was spent on salt this year with $10,272 of that coming from bulk salt alone.
Other forms of salt are calcium, which is used for newer walkways due to the fact that it is non-corrosive, and bag salt, which is bought for its easy manageability.
The bulk salt is bought from the state at $34.24 per ton. SRU puts in a bid for its allotment of salt in April and must purchase at least 80 percent of its allotment, Kukawa said. This year's allotment was 300 tons of bulk salt and there was about 30 tons leftover.
Other factors that make up the winter costs are mechanical parts for the dump trucks, plows, pick-up trucks, tractors, and other snow removal devices, and crew member overtime.
Kukawa said that this season alone there was more than 650 hours of overtime used.
Official standards for SRU's snow removal are in fact better than PennDot's standards, Kukawa said.
While PennDot normally plows and salts the roads until they are initially safe, SRU continues to keep up with not only the roads, but the sidewalks as well.
"I'm very confident that we can handle most anything that hits us," Kukawa said. "We try to do the best we can."
"We know that students and their parents pay a lot of money to come here, so they expect safety and good work."
One common misconception, Kukawa said, is that there are more crew members during the winter months. There are actually more maintenance workers in the summer.
"In the summer we hire a fair amount of temporary employees to do a lot of outside work," Kukawa said. "The winter has a lot of crunch time jobs that need done quickly and efficiently, while the summer usually consists of more drawn out projects."
