Maintenance lacking in residence buildings

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Maintenance lacking in residence buildings

Etownian - town,PA*

M. Fisher

Assistant News Editor

Friday November 09 2007

http://www.etownian.com/article.php?id=639

Recently, many cases of facility maintenance problems have been

appearing in town College's residence halls.

Senior Rob Erdesky, who lives in Hackman South Apartments, was one

of the first people to experience a problem earlier this semester

when he noticed mushrooms growing from the carpet because of a leak

within the apartment.

Erdesky, who moved in a few weeks earlier than other students, began

noticing that a puddle was forming in the apartment between the

kitchen and bathroom.

" I really didn't think [anything of it], and then a week passed, and

two of my other roommates came and … it seemed like the puddle was

getting bigger, " Erdesky said.

Erdesky and his roommates didn't take action right away, but the

puddle continued to increase in size. Finally, one of his roommates

e-mailed Environmental Services (ES) with a work order to have the

issue resolved.

" A couple of more days went by and we started seeing these white

things on our floor, " Erdesky said. " One night we were just looking

at them; we got down on our knees and poked them and they were

definitely mushrooms growing. "

Erdesky and his roommates filled out another work order explaining

the mushrooms, which continued to grow about a half of an inch from

the carpet until they pulled them out. Because Erdesky worked at

Residence Life during those weeks, he mentioned the issue and lack

of response to them and they placed a call to Facilities Management.

" I'd probably say it took at least two weeks [for them] to come to

our apartment and look at it, " Erdesky said. " ES was the first to

come, and they brought a vacuum thing and they sucked up the water.

They'd come once or twice a week and … suck the water up, but the

water just kept coming and coming. "

According to Erdesky, one of the showers was causing the leak, which

initiated the puddle and mushrooms growing out of the floor. ES told

Erdesky that the mushrooms appeared because the wood beneath the

carpet had spores.

" Unless they would tear up the carpet and replace the wood there,

the carpet would always be wet and we'd always get mushrooms there, "

Erdesky said. " It's kind of frustrating because every day we'd have

to deal with a puddle. It got to the point where we'd have to

rearrange our apartment to get stuff away from it [and] keep people

away from walking through it. "

Erdesky said that the leak was fixed after the discovery of a broken

part in one of the showers.

" They took the part out and told us not to use the one shower they

thought was the problem, " Erdesky said. " So we didn't use that one

shower for two weeks and the puddle was still getting bigger.

Another guy from Plant Ops came and finally determined that it was

the other shower causing it. They caulked around the drain and we

haven't had a problem with it since. "

Aside from leaks in resident facilities, other issues of mold have

also been arising.

Juniors Kate , Gretchen Geiger and Katharine Huylebroeck

experienced a problem with mold in their dorm room on the second

floor of Brinser Residence Hall, but it was originally discovered

through a ventilation problem.

According to , a few weeks after moving in at the beginning

of the semester, the girls' dorm room began to feel very humid.

" We thought it had more to do with the weather, " said. " But

we were noticing … the room was hot and humid, even with the air

conditioning on. "

After originally considering purchasing a humidifier, they decided

to place a work order about the problem, and asked their Resident

Assistant (RA) to help fill out the necessary paperwork.

Someone from Facilities Management came in, and suggested the girls

move Huylebroeck's bed from its original spot by the heater closer

to the wall.

" When we moved her bed, we found a huge spot of mold in the corner, "

said. " Once we discovered the circle of mold growing in the

corner of the room, we were certain that there was a humidity

problem, and were concerned that if we had not found it sooner, we

may have suffered from health problems without knowing the true

cause. "

This issue was resolved quickly, and, according to , " it's

been a lot better. "

Junior Yarger, who lives right across the hall from the girls,

saw the mold stain after it was found and removed.

" When I saw the actual stain left by the mold on the carpet, I was

pretty disgusted, " Yarger said. " If this had been my room I would

have been equally disgusted and … reported the issue to the proper

authorities as soon as possible. Mold is a serious issue in my mind

becau0se I have heard of the negative implications it can have on

your health when it is present in your direct air supply. "

Yarger believes that these issues are serious and need to be

addressed by the appropriate authorities.

" Mold can happen almost anywhere, and while I feel that no one is to

blame, I do think that these recurring incidents point to what could

potentially be a bigger problem, " Yarger said. " The College should

establish a plan for eliminating the mold that does exist and

investigate why this mold is forming in the first place in order to

prevent further occurrences. "

The issues consisting of mold, as well as other problems, such as

leaks, are taken care of by Facilities Management through work

orders placed by students. Joe Metro, director of Facilities

Management and Construction, has had previous issues with mold on

campus.

" See, everybody likes to talk about mold, " Metro said. " When we go

in to investigate it, we don't find mold. Like, for example, we had

a complaint that there was mold in Ober. And I went over and looked

at the mold and it was on the ceiling; someone had a candle and

burned their concrete ceiling. "

Metro also described an instance in which where people were

complaining about mold in a bathroom. All he found ceiling tile that

was discolored because of a leaking pipe, and it was resolved

immediately.

" Hackman South has had issues with showers, which we are trying to

resolve, " Metro said. " There is a difference between the North

showers and the South showers. We're going to do a prototype to fix

over the December break to see what's going on. "

According to Metro, this prototype consists of renovating one

bathroom during winter break. The two small showers will be replaced

with a new five-foot piece, and the issues of plumbing, flooring and

walls will be corrected as well.

" We will do one bathroom first to get an idea of what the total

project would involve, cost and how long each would take to

complete, " Metro said.

With regard to the mold in Brinser, Metro believes that the problem

was caused because the insulation in the heater was not covering up

all the piping, resulting in dripping.

For issues concerning mold, or anything else that is a persistent

and severe problem, students can place a work order to Facilities

Management by sending an e-mail to workorder@....

According to Sharon Defenderfer, administrative assistant in

Facilities Management who usually looks at the work orders, the

orders are filed by location on campus and date sent. Also, an order

can be verified as a work in progress or as completed.

" You can [also] call, but most of our students would rather send a

work order, " Metro said. " It appears instantly. If there's a leak or

something like that, then it's dispatched to our technicians, who go

out and deal with it. "

If a problem is taking too long to be resolved, students can also

talk to their RAs or Residence Life for assistance.

According to Bridgeman, associate director of Residence

Life, Residence Life can contact Facilities Management if a specific

problem persists.

" I think it's perhaps easier for us to advocate for students in the

traditional halls because there's a RA on every floor, " Bob Mikus,

director of Residence Life, said. " But in the independent living

units, our RA-to-student ratio is higher, so there are fewer

opportunities for that contact. Certainly if someone on our staff

becomes aware of it, we want to make sure we can do what we can to

take care of it. "

Also, the Campus Residence Association (CRA) is another organization

on campus that helps " foster community within the residence halls

and aid in the improvement of residence hall life, " according to

senior Brown, president of the organization.

CRA recently held town meetings in each dorm to discuss concerns

that students have with their living conditions.

" With this information, we hoped to go through the proper channels

to see these complaints and concerns were addressed, " Brown

said. " We hoped to get to know the students a little better in each

of the dorms and find out what they wanted to see changed. CRA is

not going to make improvements that the students don't want or don't

need so we want to hear the students tell us what to do. "