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.