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The Quinnipiac Chronicle

The Student News Site of Quinnipiac University

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

The Student News Site of Quinnipiac University

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

Facilities finishes removing snow across campuses

Facilities+finishes+removing+snow+across+campuses

UPDATE: 9:30 p.m.

Facilities has finished clearing the snow from parking lots and pathways on all three campuses, according to a MyQ announcement.

“The university’s three campuses are in excellent condition, thanks to the hard work of the Facilities staff, who worked tirelessly before, during and after the storm,” the announcement read.

The local and state roads are also in good condition, according to the announcement.

ORIGINAL

About 60 Facilities workers are currently clearing the snow from all three campuses, according to administration.

Facilities is doing light clean up on the residence halls on the Mount Carmel campus and has moved on to remove snow at the academic buildings and parking lots, Associate Vice President for Facilities Operations Keith Woodward said. The goal is to clear the athletic center and library, which will open at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. respectively, he said.

Outside contractors are helping Facilities to clear the parking lots, so the workers are able to tackle different lots at once, Woodward said. Woodward thanked students on the York Hill and Mount Carmel campuses for moving their cars to the parking garage. He said last night there were only about 20 parking spots available in the garage.

“That is just tremendous,” he said. “I’ve been here quite a number of years and that’s the best that the students have ever done [moving their cars,] so I’m super appreciative of that. It certainly makes clearing the snow a lot easier and less risk of an accident up there and they really did a great job.”

On the York Hill campus, workers are also clearing the residence halls and the Rocky Top Student Center. Over on the North Haven campus, Facilities is maintaining roadways and building access, Woodward said.

Facilities employees worked until around 10 p.m. last night to remove the snow that fell yesterday. A smaller group continued to work throughout the night to clear doorways and roadways so emergency personnel could enter residence halls if necessary, he said. Public Safety also received six shuttles in case of an emergency.

“With the amount of snow that was forecasted, we wanted to have people work throughout the night to handle that,” Woodward said.

The university also plowed its off-campus properties and houses, he said.

“I’m not saying they’re 100 percent perfect but they at least had a plow visit them earlier this morning,” Woodward said.

Chief of Public Safety David Barger said he has met with the Hamden police to discuss road conditions. The town has issued a parking ban and travel advisory, Barger said, so the university will continue to suspend all shuttle services.

“We have found that [Hamden’s] primary roads and their secondary roads are still passable,” Barger said. “But they prefer that they don’t have any additional traffic on those roads which will allow them to clean up a little bit more and a little bit faster.”

The university would not comment on how much it budgets for snow removal, but Associate Vice President for Public Relations John Morgan said Facilities gets a line item in its budget for snow removal. If there are many storms and the department needs more money to clear snow, it can take money from other parts of its budget.

“We have the experience having had storms for several years in the Hamden area,” he said. “Facilities and Public Safety determine their budgets based on what they’ve experienced in the past with the hope that we won’t have more than normal amount of storms.”

Stay with The Chronicle for updates.

EDIT: This article was edited to reflect that Mount Carmel residents moved their cars to the parking garage, in addition to York Hill residents.

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