by
Tiffany King
Staff Writer
Winter weather has kept physical plant workers busy over the past
few weeks.
While sidewalks and main roads like Rivers Street have been plowed
and treated frequently, parking lots like Stadium Lot were not given
the same attention, leading to last Tuesday's car damage.
University Police officials feel that the ice slide last Tuesday
could not have been prevented. Many students feel otherwise.
“I definitely think these parking spaces could have been scraped
the first time it snowed,” said graduate student Christopher
Ernst, whose car was trapped between two other sliding cars in Stadium
Lot.
University Police Chief Investigator Maj. Larry Foster said the
amounts of snow Boone got this year, and the amount of people parking
in Stadium made it hard to come out and plow.
“We have had more continuous snow this year than before, and
with all the students parking in Stadium Lot, it is very hard to
get them to move their cars so the plows can get to these parking
spaces. I don’t honestly think that this could have been prevented,”
Foster said.
This icy mess left many wondering how the university decides what
to plow and what stays the same.
Senior elementary education major Angelica L. Hoover, whose car
was involved in last Tuesday’s ice slide, said that money
issues may have had something to do with it.
“I think the university left this parking lot [Stadium] like
this to save money, because they should have been keeping up with
this. They are lucky that no one has fallen and been seriously injured,”
Hoover said.
University Police Chief Gunther E. Doerr said that while the Physical
Plant comes out and does the actual snow removal, the University
Police keep them informed and updated on what needs to be plowed.
“We don’t actually go out and remove snow, but we do
patrol and let them know areas that need to be taken care of. We
can get a pretty good idea of how conditions are from our office
in the parking deck, and we are out more frequently assisting drivers,
and making sure people are driving safely as well,” Doerr
said.
The Physical Plant, the on-campus department that handles landscaping,
repairs and other maintenance issues, also handles snow removal.
The Physical Plant is a part of Business Affairs.
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