Wednesday, March 27, 2019// The Statement
6B

From Page 5B

Understandably, major-scale winter 
maintenance is difficult for both the 
University’s campus and the city of Ann 
Arbor. Nonetheless, the enviroments 
are wildly different. Downtown and off-
campus properties are given policies 
that need to be followed by each indi-
vidual property owner, meanwhile Uni-
versity of Michigan Custodial & Grounds 
Services has teams of hired staff.
“It’s a lot of moving parts, and people 
don’t always understand the work we put 
in,” said Rob Doletzky, the University’s 
landscape and grounds manager, when 
speaking about the laborious work of 
clearing 168 miles of sidewalk each sea-
son. “Some of this (winter maintenance) 
is timing.”
He went on to tell me an example of 
how his team will clear a sidewalk that 
borders campus and the city. The city 
then goes through the street and plows 
it, but when they widen the snow to make 
streets more clear, it creates a ridge that 
goes into the curb cuts, hence creating a 
snow pile.
Doletzky explained that the team’s job 
is difficult because they work against the 
weather: “The weather throws curve-
balls,” he said. If snow is accumulat-
ing for a long period of time, it can take 
Rob’s team “four to five hours just to get 
through each route.” The grounds ser-
vices team splits up into different zones: 
East Campus, North Campus, Medical 
Campus, Central Campus and South 
Campus. With 16 parking structures, 21 
miles of roads and 11 miles of steps and 
handicap ramps, the responsibility to 
clear these spaces is never-ending.

Despite 
that 
initial first plow, 
Doletzky 
shared 
that 
“widen-
ing and moving 
snow takes days.” 
It becomes even 
more difficult if a 
snow or ice storm 
starts mid-day or 
later in the eve-
ning. 
His 
crew 
members 
can 
sometimes 
work 
up to 16 hours a 
day to get every-
thing cleared, and 
the services have 
off-shift 
people 
on call for the 
hospital to clear 
entrances 
and 
sidewalks.
To dive further 
into 
accessibil-
ity 
on 
campus, 
Doletzky and the 
Office of Services 
for Students with 
Disabilities 
are 
looking to find out 
where it is exactly 
that people need help when it comes to 
commuting around campus and knowing 
their routes.
“We’ve worked together with the 
Office of SSD,” Doletsky said. “We pri-
oritize ADA entrances first, like ramps 
… Just one barrier to get into a building 
can stop people (with disabilities) from 
going in.” Additionally, he clarified that 
the grounds services are responsible 
for maintaining any tactile blocks and 
crosswalks that are on campus. Despite 
a persistent and organized University 
grounds crew, uncontrollable weather 
becomes a main setback in their opera-
tions, and pristine tactile blocks, side-
walks and crosswalks may not always be 
promised.
“It’s pretty rare for someone to say 
good job to us,” he said. Regardless of 
the hard work and the long hours that 
the crew does put in, there are commut-
ers who still complain, not understand-
ing the ins and outs of the operation. To 
extend their services even further, they 
“created volunteer groups with students 
who now get paid.” “They go out to curb 
cuts and ramps that need more mainte-
nance,” Doletzky said.
During the interview, he reminded 
me of Ann Arbor’s four ice storms that 
happened in just four weeks this win-
ter. With the constant effort to eliminate 
slippery walkways, it would be almost 
impossible for everything to be ice-free.
“Do you know how much salt it would 
take for campus to never be slippery dur-
ing an ice storm?” he asked me over the 
phone. I was afraid to hear the answer.
“3,000 tons of salt for one day,” 

Doletzky said. “That’s how much salt we 
use in one season.” Additionally, through 
drainage and debris becomes a salt brine 
mixture that drifts into the Huron River 
and pollutes it. 
“The better job we do, there is an 
expectation that rises,” Doletzky said. 
More complaints plus more effort from 
the crew equals more equipment, mate-
rials and labor. In those scenarios where 
tons of machine energy and salt brine 
are being used, it becomes an negative, 
enviromental impact that is solely used 
to satisfy commuters and ensure safety 
on campus.
There is still a question of where 
the happy medium lies: How do we get 
enough snow plowed and shoveled that 
it isn’t overly laborious on workers or 
environmentally harmful, but is still 
accessible enough for the disabled com-
munity? These questions regarding win-
ter maintenance and accessibility seem 
to become more multi-faceted and chal-
lenging each step of the way. For those 
like Heinrich who eagerly need an active 
solution, the answers become frustrat-
ing and fuzzy. Pieces that are clear and 
understandable, however, are awareness 
and effort from all.
I

t is an unspoken truth that win-
ter in Ann Arbor will never be 
trouble-free. As Doletzky men-
tioned, even if sidewalks are pristine 
after cleaning and re-assuring its acces-
sibility for five hours, city snow plows 
can still come through at night and 
dump all that snow onto what once were 
snow-free sidewalks. There will be situa-
tions where sidewalks freeze, and some-
one will not be home until 5 p.m. to salt 
their sidewalk. These are all minor yet 
impactful situations that inevitably hap-
pen. Unfortunately, they become cyclical 
habits that we become accustomed to as 
a community.
Toward the end of our interview, I 
asked Heinrich what he thinks the solu-
tion to all of this is.
“It’s just people giving a shit,” Hein-
rich answered. After an hour and half 
interview, I could hear exhaustion in his 
voice. “People need to be less ignorant.”
“It’s all about universal accessibility,” 
he continued. “If you can make it good 
for people who are disabled, you can 
make it even better for everyone else.”
There isn’t exactly one answer or 
practice that will eradicate these issues. 
Factors like staffing, funding, timing, 
environmental impacts and overall com-
munication are key barriers in this situ-
ation. But what we know are the facts: 
Commuters with disabilities can’t get to 
their destination during winter, the city 
ordinances aren’t ideal for accessibility 
expectations and organizing the Uni-
versity grounds crew involves a complex 
system of considerations, and more mov-
ing parts than one may expect. And there 
are pieces to this puzzle that are held in 
the community’s hands.

Ann Arbor is commonly known for its 
progressive, liberal and open-minded 
nature. A place for leaders and the best 
with a highly-ranked position for high-
er-education institutions, artistic pur-
suits and athletics, the University is used 
to coming out on top. These practices of 
winter maintenance accessibility, how-
ever, don’t nearly fit the progressive 
model that the community tries to repre-
sent. Heinrich describes his experience 
of inaccessibility with a metaphor of 
Hatcher Graduate Library and its archi-
tectural design:
“The front entrance of Hatcher is a 
frame for the University,” he said. “It has 
these steps to go upwards, to gain access 
to knowledge and intelligence. And 
there’s a wheelchair ramp on the side … 
but the reality is that is not accessible. 
There is literally a sign that says ‘Not 
accessible by wheelchair.’”
“If you actually want to access the 
building (in a wheelchair), you have to 
go all the way around back to the one 
entrance,” Heinrich continued. “And 
that is such a physical manifestation of 
what this University has to say about 
accessibility: It’s not a priority. It’s show 
and tell.”
As a campus that ignited a Diversity, 
Equity and Inclusion initiative for the 
“assurance of non-discrimination and 
equal opportunity for all persons in 
our community,” it’s clear after hearing 
Heinrich’s story and the story of so many 
others, the University is not granting 
that equal opportunity for all people in 
the community.
Only when we begin to acknowledge 
and understand those who have dif-
ficulty accessing this city and campus, 
can we then take a step forward in our 
practices towards a truly inclusive DEI 
initiative. Only when we decide to sit 
down and discuss more effective winter 
maintenance operations with the city 
administrators, can we then take a step 
forward in our practices toward a truly 
inclusive DEI initiative. Only when we 
decide to shovel/salt just a few extra feet 
of pavement–– the tactile-blocks, curb 
cuts and all of the in-betweens –– can we 
then take a step forward in our practices 
toward a truly inclusive DEI initiative. 
Whether you’re a student, faculty 
member, a business person, a townie or 
an elderly couple walking to your car 
downtown, we are all vital pieces to this 
solution.
While Heinrich still seeks a better 
future for the disabled community, he 
believes in a more accessible and more 
enjoyable city for everyone: “We need to 
better our city for everybody and recog-
nize that you (the city) have the ability 
to set better rules,” he said. “It’s not just, 
‘How do we make a better downtown 
for people who are disabled?’ but ‘How 
do we make winter downtown a more 
enjoyable experience for everyone?’”

PHOTO COURTESY OF ERIKA SHEVCHEK

Unshoveled sidewalk on Hill Street between Church and S. Forest, 12:20pm. 

