Behind the Waldorf scenes

Darlene Miles of the Facilities Department looks through files on her computer.

By Courtney Swessinger

With winter underfoot, students will notice snow is being cleared and salt is being put down. This work is done by the people in the facilities department who work tirelessly to make sure the campus is safe for students and faculty.

One person working tirelessly to get the entire school ready for the semester and for each day is Al Eggebraaten, the Director of Facilities.

According to Eggebraaten there are four different departments in facilities. These departments are housekeeping, grounds, maintenance, and transportation.

Housekeeping maintains the academic buildings and the dorms on campus. For those in housekeeping, their day begins at 6 a.m. as they unlock the buildings on campus. Then those assigned to academic housekeeping go to each of the classrooms to disinfect all of the tables and chairs. After that they vacuum or mop each of the floors. This is typically done by 7 a.m. each day.

After the classrooms are in order, the housekeeping staff will work on cleaning the non-classrooms, and restrooms. The restrooms are disinfected and trash cans are emptied. Carpets are also cleaned in the process. For cleaning buildings such as Salveson or the Atrium, push behind vacuums or riding floor cleaners are used.

After the morning duties are finished the housekeeping staff take a half-hour lunch. Then it’s back to cleaning and dusting thother offices. Their day ends by 2:30.

Staff in charge of cleaning the dorms also begin at six, but they will begin with the restrooms. The restrooms are disinfected from top to borrom and trash is removed. Then they move on to the common areas where they will vacuum, dust, and empty the trash. They are also responsible for cleaning the windows. Housekeeping in the dorms let maintenance know about their needs with paper products and chemicals.

“If there are any repair needs then they will notify maintenance,” Eggebraaten said.

The housekeepers will put in a work order online, and that will go out to individual maintenance people for each building.

For maintenance it is an ongoing job. They are in charge of 55 acres of grounds including over 20 buildings. They are in charge of changing lightbulbs, fixing boilers, hot water heaters, the hvac system, and every room has a filter which gets changed once tor twice a year. They are also in charge of refrigeration.

There are three groundskeepers during the school year and up to seven additional working during the summer. They start their day going around picking up garbage and debris. They are also in charge of snow removal.

When a snow storm hits, maintenance will come in between 4 and 5 a.m. They will use two plow trucks, a tractor with a snow blower, a tractor with a broom, and hand shovels. Every winter they will put down roughly two pallet loads of salt and a truckload of sand.

When the weather improves, they will trim trees, shrubs, and plant flowers.

There are around 30 licensed vehicles that are maintained in the transportation department. On average there will be 650 trips for athletics and academics made in a year. The department is in charge of vans, two buses, academic vehicles, and an airport hangar for the CSU jet.

Daily, this department washes and cleans the inside of vehicles. They are also responsible for general maintenance such as oil changes.

The facilities department as a whole works together to do other jobs such as replacing concrete slabs. They replaced the football scoreboard and built the 12×120 metal shed under the stadium.

While the facilities department is more of a behind the scenes department, they do a lot of important work for the entire school. Next time you see someone from the facilities department make sure to tell them thank you, because they do more than you think.