While Mountainview College residents were indoors sleeping yesterday, cleaning staff members could be seen outside in the rising sun raking, shoveling and mending the surrounding landscape.
Their work is part of Physical Facilities’ annual spring gardening regimen at Binghamton University.
‘It’s part of our grounds work to make campus pretty,’ said Karen Fennie, a spokeswoman for Physical Facilities. ‘Our department takes pride in the appearance of the campus.’
Led by grounds manager Stephen Gowe, 12 grounds keepers can be seen across campus on their knees with pruning shears or behind the wheel of street sweepers and trucks. And while the duties like pruning trees, putting down mulch and pulling weeds may seem like minimal work, it’s not.
So far workers have laid down 180 yards of mulch, planted 5,000 tulips, deposited 6,000 pounds of grass seed, and placed 4,000 pounds of fertilizer, according to Gowe.
‘As far as how much money is spent on the sprucing up you see now, we estimate that to be around $10,000,’ Fennie said.
Physical Facilities is beautifying the grounds for members of the campus community and in preparation for May’s Commencement. And while the University wants the campus to look good for current and outgoing students and their families, workers are also pulling weeds and planting flowers for visitors.
‘We have 25,000 people come and visit campus each year,’ said Sandra Starke, vice provost of enrollment management. ‘When they come to campus, the first impression they get is what they see with our grounds.’
But for some workers, the idea of landscaping digs deeper than student admission numbers.
Chris Button of Yorks Landscape Service, which does work on campus, said he gardens because he likes ‘being outdoors.’
Last week, his company dug holes with a backhoe at the Peace Quad at 5:30 a.m. to plant about 30 maple, oak and pine trees. Each tree weighed 1,250 pounds.
Custodial workers also help out.
‘I love it,’ said cleaning staff member Vicki Nemcek, who can be seen trimming bushes outside of Mountainview beginning at 6 a.m. ‘I do it at home.’
At 9:30 a.m. she packs up and heads indoors to clean the dormitories.
The recent surge in landscaping started about two weeks ago when Physical Facilities concluded that the winter’s frost had finally left and that it was safe to plant. The timing was later than usual, according to Fennie.
‘Weather dictates when we start planting,’ she said.
Preparation for the season began in autumn, when workers planted tulip bulbs. Grounds employees have also been maintaining perennial gardens, like the one near the Fine Arts Building. Their duties have also included seeding areas that have been walked through, hydroseeding, cleaning up sand, putting down thermal blankets, planting pear trees and tending flowers around campus.
Physical Facilities is also working on Operation Green Space, a project that restores unused paved areas to original, natural conditions. ‘In the last five years, 11,145 square feet of paved area has been returned to green space,’ said Fennie.
For Starke, however, restoring the campus landscape also restores a sense of security.
‘A clean campus equates a safe campus.’