Wednesday, March 27, 2019// The Statement
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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.