By Casey Lauer, Assistant Vice President
With the washing of sand and salt by the first spring rain – buds of new life are once again visible on the Camps landscape – and if crappie swam in Campus Creek, now would be time to float a bobber.
Daylight savings time was March 13th, which will quickly erode the looming winter darkness; warmer weather bringing dew instead of frost, and evenings with crisp fresh air.
Just like the signs of spring, there are so many things within Facilities to be thankful for, dawning each new day with a spirit of hope and renewal once again.
In the area of Grounds, Custodial and Recycling, there is an opportunity to attract a qualified, talented individual for the Director’s position to provide leadership and guidance. There is a nation-wide search currently underway to fill this position.
Also, the Grounds team is now fully integrated into Dykstra as a home-base that is common for all campus coverage zones, instead of having different teams staged across campus. With the move, the Grounds team also has a much larger space to store equipment and supplies, with a separate work space to service equipment, unlike the previous cramped and crowded facility.
The Custodial team worked proactively to communicate equipment needs to enhance their efficiency of performing custodial duties, and are now enjoying the benefits of utilizing this equipment for cleaning and building upkeep.
The central steam and chilled water plants now have new leadership after a national search. K-State’s own Tim Brunner, was selected for the Plant manager position and has been intricately involved in the start-up of CP-2, the new chilled water plant on campus. As I write this, the chillers are being started for the first time in CP-2, and supporting equipment is being brought online to support the growing campus cooling load.
The Maintenance teams and supervisors are actively supporting work to update building controls and mechanical systems in nearly every building on campus. They have been heavily invested to ensure that the buildings they serve are being equipped with more efficient and responsive systems for them to manage and maintain.
New things are happening in other areas of Facilities – like the centralization of accounting functions and a new model for how the storeroom will operate.
As we conclude this week of spring break – I challenge you to reset. It becomes so easy to let the circumstances in life bog us down, and often times, I find myself worrying most about the things I can’t control, rather than the things I can.
It’s time to wash the sand and salt off to gain a new perspective.
It’s time for a re-set.
By Tammy Powers, Administrative Specialist for KSU Contract Post Office
