Cold weather work shared by many While highway and public works crews are often seen as the face of storm response, thousands of other CSEA members are keeping their communities safe and providing essential services during severe weather. Custodial and maintenance crews at state colleges, school districts and libraries are responsible for clearing snow and making these campuses and facilities safe for students, staff and patrons. They are not deterred by severe weather conditions, and plow and shovel the parking lots and entrance walkways at colleges, schools and libraries to clear snow and enable students or patrons to safely access the buildings for regular activities. “I arrive at 6 a.m. every morning. This year has been extremely cold and it has snowed just about every night,” said Franklin County Local activist Craig Symonds, a custodian for the Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES at the North Franklin Educational Center in Malone, and a CSEA unit vice president. “My duties as a custodian include shoveling of sidewalks, sanding, plowing, clearing out paths to fire hydrants. At times, when the custodian in the South end is out, I have to travel to Saranac Lake at 2 a.m. to make sure that staff is able to come CSEA Onondaga County Unit President Rob Sweeney, a maintenance electrician with the Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection, repairs a rooftop unit at the Davis Road Pump Station in North Syracuse in sub-zero temperatures this February. to work. Saranac Lake is located one hour away from the North Franklin Educational Center,” said Symonds. CSEA Onondaga County Local member Jeff Pederzolli is a maintenance mechanic with the Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection, working at the Oak Orchard Wastewater Treatment Plant in Clay. “The cold is very challenging. When we’re on call we have to show up at 6 in the morning, and plow, snow blow, shovel, and clear all the tanks off. The cold makes me feel terrible. It kills my knees. We have to come in for five or 10 minutes at a time just to warm back up, and then we get right back out there to work. This is the worst I’ve ever seen it, and I’m going on 12 years,” Pederzolli said. CSEA Onondaga County Unit President Rob Sweeney works as a maintenance electrician in the instrumentation/electrical department of the Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection. “This has been one of the coldest Februarys that we’ve been in, and it’s been sub-zero temperature with wind chills that bring it down to 10-below, 15-below zero. It’s brutal out there working in these conditions. We try to put layers on and get good gloves, but we often have to be outside. If there’s a breakdown, it’s crucial to get the equipment running, so if we have to go out in the cold, we have to go out in the cold,” Sweeney said. — Mark M. Kotzin Symonds Obligation drives plow operators Continued from page 8 November to April your stress level doubles. Your schedule becomes compressed. The last one we had they called us in around 3 a.m., a run lasts four or so hours. We were out again midday, had a break, then out again in the evening for another run. That night I got home around 11:30. That’s not too bad. It’s when you have two or three days like that in a row where you can really get run down. Salt or sand? Johnson: Both. We mix them together. It’s cheaper and it helps with traction. A lot of people think only sand is going down but if you look closely, the salt is there, too. We do a 50/50 mix then load it into the sander. Every place is different. Do you drive alone? Johnson: No, not in residential areas. It’s too dangerous, too many variables — people, other drivers. You need a wing operator. I know that other drivers like state DOT drive solo. That’s a bit easier with a long length of road like a highway, but it’s still not easy. What is your favorite time of year? Johnson: April (smiling). When April hits, it’s euphoric! — Therese Assalian March 2015 The Work Force 9
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