Elizabethtown College has had experiences in the past with heavy rainfall over the summer. In fact, according to Millersville University’s Weather Information Center, 2018 was Lancaster County’s wettest year with 153 rainy days. To compare, it rained 123 days in Lancaster County in 2017 and the average number of rainy days for Seattle is 152. August was the rainiest month of 2018 with a record 10.5 inches of rain falling in about four hours Aug. 31.
Last year was unprecedented and no one was prepared for the issues that the abundance of rain would cause.
“Last year was awful. We had a lot of rainfall related issues and moisture related issues,” Director of Facilities Management and Construction Mark Zimmerman said.
This summer, Facilities Management made several changes to their policies and maintenance routines to prepare for a summer that could have been as bad as last year’s. Luckily, the worst was avoided, according to Zimmerman.
“We didn’t get those prolonged days of rain,” he said. “It was a lot worse last summer than it was this summer.”
The biggest concern for this summer was not the just the rain but the humidity as well. These conditions caused problems with microbial growth, especially in the Vera Hackman apartments. Facilities had a meeting last spring to discuss how to improve the protocol used in maintaining the buildings on campus, especially the older residence halls, in order to prohibit any microbial growth for this summer.
Zimmerman said that Facilities used to close doors and blinds in dorm rooms when cleaning them between events and over the summer. Now they keep the doors and the blinds open to keep the air circulating and allow natural light into the rooms. They have also increased room inspections for microbial growth.
“[The Apartments] really drove our concerns about how we wanted to treat our buildings,” Zimmerman said.
Over the summer, new HVAC systems were installed in the Apartments to better filter out humid air along with humidity sensors to monitor the air. Luckily, the rain that the College did experience did not impact the construction on the Apartments because most of it was already under roof. Facilities also had Environmental Services become more involved in inspecting the rooms to assure that moisture and humidity levels were normal.
Facilities also improved their work order system, transitioning from paper to become more digital. This change allows a faster response to submitted work orders and “better communication” between Facilities and the students.
Zimmerman said that Facilities did not experience any issues with Lake Placida flooding or with major roof leaks in any of the buildings.
He also reported that Facilities was being much more proactive with maintaining off-campus housing by cleaning gutters and doing inspections.
“There’s actually more mold spores in the air in the fall and spring than any other time of the year. Fall is the worst for [microbial growth],” Zimmerman said.
However, students can be proactive about preventing microbial growth in their dorm rooms, houses or apartments. He stressed the importance of keeping the room or rooms clean, including throwing away food and vacuuming dust mites. Keeping the blinds up is also important, especially when all roommates are off-campus during breaks or over the summer.
Zimmerman also discussed future plans and preparations for Facilities to keep Etown’s campus in good condition. During the fall, Facilities will work on cleaning leaves out of drains and gutters. In preparation for winter, the snow meeting has been scheduled much earlier, in the beginning of October instead of November, because Facilities needs to adjust their snow removal plans for the Bowers Center for Sports, Fitness and Well-Being. For snow removal itself, the current plan is to start clearing paths at the center of campus where the BSC is and work their way out. Facilities will also begin with clearing the parking lots for Dining Services and then clear the lots near academic buildings.
Zimmerman said he is pleased with how “proactive” Facilities has been over the summer in “not allow[ing] situations to get to where there’s major issues.”
