We recently followed a presidential proclamation to lower flags to half staff to honor the victims of the school shooting in Florida. Tomorrow, we will lower the flags to half staff to honor the interment of Billy Graham (see the bottom of http://ha...
Accidents happen. No matter our attempts to prevent them, accidents happen. It is how we respond to them that defines us.
It was Saturday evening after a home basketball game when an unfortunate mess was discovered coming from the mechani...
Presidential Proclamation Honoring the Victims of the Sutherland Springs, Texas Shooting
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
We are deeply saddened by the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, which took the lives of more than 25...
I am almost reluctant to try and mention the things Facility Services did in preparation for Homecoming this year. Not because this team does not deserve bragging, but because I will miss more than I list.
Although we want the campus always loo...
Why is the tent still on the lawn? Homecoming is over, isn't it? Spec isn't until next summer, right?
Sometimes taking good care of our things means we put them away as soon as we are done with them. We put our lawnmowers and other ...
Sometimes things happen when we aren't around. It can be a simple thing, like someone locking themselves out of a place, a light is burned out or a toilet is clogged. Or it can be a little more complicated, as it was Sunday afternoon. Qu...
The first home football game is almost here. Facility Services does a lot of work behind the scenes to prepare for it. This year we are trying to do even more.
The floor is usually something you don't pay attention to unless it is dirty, scuffed or otherwise unsatisfactory. In Facility Services, we look at floors all the time. We clean them. We repair them. And, under certain circumstance...
Before I mention the variety of things Facility Services is involved in, let me remind everyone that as of today, the new billing plan for vehicle checkouts is in effect. That means a car will cost $25/day + $0.30/mile. A minivan will cost $30...
I apologize to all who read this who may have wondered about the current state of the flags. Here is the official proclamation.
Anyone who wants to receive the notification directly, feel free to visit http://halfstaff.org. They show the curren...
I was just reflecting on the many wonderful posts from Jim Collins and ITS and realized it's been a while since there was anything from Facility Services. December 10, in fact. It's been a very long time indeed. I'll write about a couple...
It's been an unfortunately long time since I last posted. This will give a few of you a heads up that we are planning some rate increases in Facility Services.
The first rate increase is our labor charge rates. Those are going up significantly....
I won't belabor the point, nor steal any thunder from the Communications department with photos. Let me just say that students made a request through Dave Schaal's office to have the victory bell returned to the campus. During Spring Break the vertical su...
As I've become more familiar with my new role in Facility Services, one theme that's been consistent from the beginning is energy management and conservation. I hear it most regularly from the student senators that come visit weekly, but it also comes fro...
Thanking people is always a risky business. It's because a well-meaning gesture turns into unintentional hurt due to forgetfulness. In this case, I truly am thankful for each crew member, even if not listed by name. Every crew member in Facility Services ...
Thanksgiving week is upon us. I'm still in my first year with Facility Services, so I'm still learning a lot about what goes on here throughout the year. This year has been different, I'm sure, since the cold weather struck early. But I've been impressed ...
Steam line repairs are underway - most of the time. It turns out, as you can probably imagine, this is a very weather dependent task. When it rains, making a trench is much harder. Even now that it has dried out some, it is still quite a...
Starting Monday, August 11, barricades will be erected on the central quad to begin preparation for the installation of the new steam line. The south doors from Swarm Inn will be closed, only allowing west entry/exit from that vestibule. The b...
This summer has flown by. I had great intentions of sharing all kinds of things about what's been going on in Facility Services, but I ended up getting caught up in it and then also took time for vacation and ended up unfortunately silent.
So n...
In a perfect world, an event like Commencement actually wouldn't change much for many people. The campus would always look the way we want, buildings would always be equally clean for regular use and special events and everyone could just do what the...
Self-propelled != self-controlled (!= is a computer science way of saying "not equal"), but I'll get back to that.
I've sometimes heard people wonder how Keith Poeppe can ride the mower summer after summer after summer. He goes all day everyday ...
I recently asked the question, where did the term "cruiser" come from? Did you ever notice that word doesn't appear on the 14-passenger (15-passenger if you want to count the driver) buses anywhere? I still don't know the answer, although it was...
I feel like I should apologize, both because it has been so long since I last posted a blog entry and also because tomorrow makes 3 weeks since I actually worked with the mechanical maintenance crew. That's telling, but it was a very good day. F...
Written 3/7/2014
With ...
At any given moment there is no greater frustration than the one right in front of you. I know I feel that way, even though it isn't really true. In the grand scheme of things, my emotional response to the situation in Ukraine and Crimea is far ...
When I was asked to be responsible for Facility Services, I had to admit up front that of the skills I bring to the department, one of them is most certainly NOT a deep understanding of the department's internal operations and the day-to-day functions of ...
I have no doubt there are many questions going around about status of the "Maple Street Building," or the "Wrestling Building," or the building known by a variety of other names. Officially I believe it will be the Baughman Athletic Center. In o...
The elevator in the Library has been the justifiable subject of many conversations. Let me share some information that may help in understanding.
That elevator was manufactured by a company that no longer exists. Unfortunately, that company...
The steam problems in the MSC are worse than expected. Some of you may have noticed the crew out digging on the southwest corner of the Swarm Inn.
They were able to isolate the MSC from the rest of the steam system in order to determine if the ...
You may have noticed some extra steam throughout the MSC. That wasn't planned. Some or all of the mechanical maintenance crew (Kim Moore, Rolan Gilpatrick, Ron Lancaster, Greg Williams and Travis Briggs) are working to correct this problem.&nb...
Within the past month, we have taken delivery of 4 new fleet vehicles. The first two were Dodge Grand Caravan minivans. These 2014 models look very similar to the others, but one is navy blue and the other is a silver. They've already been ...