Last Monday morning, in the wake of D.C.’s 18-inch snowfall, a lone member of Georgetown University Facilities Management’s townhouse crew stood at the corner of 37th and O Streets in front of the Village B apartment complexes, shoveling. He didn’t stop until he reached N Street, clearing the entire walkway by himself. This herculean effort was indicative of the exceptional job that Facilities Management did in removing the snow and ice from campus and stood in stark contrast to the feeble performance by the District in removing snow from the roads surrounding the University and Burleith.
According to Vice President of Facilities & Student Housing Karen Frank, Facilities Management staff worked over 1,500 person-hours during the first three days of the storm. Many worked 12-hour shifts and some worked 14 or 15 hours straight. Two workers walked to and from campus each day from 16th Street to help clear the snow. Managers also participated in the shoveling—one cleared the Henle stairwell doors. In all, Facilities used 15,000 pounds of rock salt, 10,780 pounds of de-icer and five tons of sand to clear the roads and keep them passable. The crew even protected the fish in the on-campus ponds by placing heaters and hoses in all three ponds.
Unfortunately, while Facilities Management was working around the clock to clear the campus, the District ignored both the roads around the University and Burleith. By last Wednesday, no snowplows had been deployed to O Street, and some parts of Burleith were never plowed. This lack of action is unacceptable, considering there is no subway stop in the area. What is especially disheartening is that the District apparently had the funds to deploy snow removal equipment to the area. Last week, the District purchased a $140,000 snow melter-a machine with the capacity to eat 40 tons of snow an hour-to help the clean up. Unfortunately, the 25-year-old machine broke down last Friday, leaving it idle on what should have been its first day of work.
With a new snowstorm beginning to bear down on the city, we are confident that Facilities Management will continue to do an excellent job on campus. We wish we could say the same about the rest of the District.
