Pennsylvania State University at Capitol Campus ■■
Vol. 8 No. 11
Phil Geigert working the board. WoNDeR is back on the airwaves again. For WoNDeR story and survey, see page 4. photo by bob foster
Sticker money stuck
According to the director of
student affairs, the money used
for snow removal on campus
comes from the general oper
ation budget and not parking
sticker sales.
Jerry South, director of
student affairs, said that
$25,000 is expected to be col
lected from sticker sales from
summer 78 to spring 79.
About 90 percent of this will be
sent to a university wide
parking lot construction fund at
University Park. The remain
ing 10 percent will be used to
defer costs for administering
parking sticker fees. Many stu
dents on campus are under a
misconception on how snow
removal operations are funded.
The parking construction
fund is a pool of all Penn State
Campuses fees for parking
sticker sales- less than 10 per
cent is kept to pay costs for
selling the stickers. Each cam
pus can request funding for
building parking facilities
through the main campus.
A request by Capitol Cam
pus to expand facilities near the
Multi-purpose building was re
jected by officials at University
Park. The last parking lot built
at Capitol was constructed
around 1975.
School regulations call for
at University Park
salting or plowing roads and
lots when there is “three or
more inches of accumulation of
ice or snow”, according to Russ
Rorabaugh, manager of campus
maintenance and utilities de
partment.
Due to inadequate snow
removal equipment and no
budget allocations for purchas
ing new equipment, the univer
sity contracts with two outside
vendors to do the job.
Lower Swatara Township
was contracted to cinder and
salt campus roads. Harrisburg
Asphault Co., Harrisburg,
plows school lots under con
tract with the campus.
Capitol’s equipment
amounts to several scout jeeps
equipped with plows, and a 48
inch cinder and salt spreader
pulled behind a scout. The
equipment was purchased to
clear walkways from the
dorms, Meade Heights, and
school buildings.
Rorabaugh said the campus
equipment isn’t large enough to
plow lots and roads, and budget
doesn’t allow for purchasing
equipment only used during
winter months-the reason for
contracting with outside com
panies to do the work.
During the “ice storm” two
weeks ago the accumulation
“AN the news that fits we print”
didn't amount to three inches so
the contractors weren’t contac
ted to clear snow and ice.
Attempts by the mainten
ance department included re
moving ice and snow from
walkways and plowing driving
lanes between parked cars on
school lots.
“They didn’t close the cam
pus (two weeks ago), and we
don’t have the capability to salt
lots at 6 am-an hour before it
begins to fill up with cars,”
Rorabaugh noted.
This year’s budget figure
projects about $9,000 for snow
and ice clearing. Rorabaugh
said last year’s expenditure
was about $19,000 - because of
excessive snowfall. A normal
year without heavy snowfall
amounts to about $4,500.
“This year we’ve had to do
very little plowing,” he said,
noting that “about half of the
road budget had been spent.”
An attempt at the business
office to find the hourly cost
paid to the two outside vendors
resulted in a statement calling
for “no release under any cir
cumstances” by direct order
from Wilber Burget, director
of purchasing at University
Park.
by wendy hawthorne
Good People’s Productions, a student oiganization
on campus, will sponsor a jazz concert featuring noted
tenor saxophone artist Stanley Turrentine, plus special
guest performers, at the Forum in Harrisburg on Fri.,
Feb. 16 at 8:00 p.m.
letters to ed.
provost interview
short story
lou’s corner
feb. 22 is next readi
February 13,1979
pages 2 &3
>e feb. 19!!!