By Anna Dory
The campus is silent. The moon illuminates the layer of snow accumulating in the parking lot. A pair of headlights pushes through the blue of the early morning. The first tracks cut across the powder, then another then another. Jim has the coffee ready by the time everyone has arrived.
Its 4 am at Front Range Community College every building is empty, but the Facilities building is bustling. The garage doors open, and snowplows rumble into the darkness.
The FRCC Facilities department is a team of about 13 self-sufficient people. Someone has to brave the slippery roads to clear the way for everyone else at FRCC that is the Facilities Department.
The day before a storm, the facilities team meets to create a game plan and sort out duties. They need to remove all the snow and lay down Deep Thaw, the ice melt used on ice patches before 8 am. They will also need to continue to maintain the condition of the grounds all day.
Annie Garland, the grounds and nursery keeper, said: "We are here to ensure students have a safe and beautiful place to work."
Their tractors are the first thing in the new snow, and sometimes, when the snows deep enough, it's hard to tell what's sidewalk, parking lot, and curb. When machines break down, Annie explained that the team is self-sufficient and can do most all their equipment maintenance inhouse.
The facilities team has everything they need on-site. Their building is tucked behind the Marron Peak. Annie said, "If you don't have to think about us, that probably means we are going our job."
We don’t often pay attention to everything that goes into making FRCC what it is and the Editors at The Reporter like to shout out to Annie Garland and everyone over in facilities for their hard work.
