Salve Recovers from the Blizzard of ’05

By: Chelse Melina
Posted In: News

Preparing for a snow storm is hectic. Whether preparing for a “house” of three or four, or for a “house” of approximately 1,200, such as the Salve Regina University campus in Newport, Rhode Island, there are a number of things to consider:

Will there be enough food to eat if the snow prohibits traveling? What if the power lines are iced or blown down and there is no heat? What if someone is hurt and needs to go to the hospital during the heart of the storm? And where on earth is all the snow supposed to go once the storm has stopped and snow removal becomes an issue?

Salve was in good hands during what has been named the “Blizzard of ’05,” by NBC10 WJAR. With a few days notice of the storm that was headed towards New England, numerous Salve offices and departments had the opportunity to get together to discuss accommodations, emergency evacuation routes and plans for the blizzard.

John Mixter, Director of Security for Salve, stayed tuned to local weather channels and stayed in close communication with the Town of Newport’s City Officials and with Salve’s grounds crew in order to keep Salve students safe during the storm and in order to best facilitate the campus in the aftermath of the storm with snow removal.

“With the help of the grounds crew, we were able to keep all of the students safe,” Mixter said. “There were no serious incidents, what-so-ever.”

According to Mixter, the Salve campus got approximately 22 inches of snow which made it very difficult to move around campus. In fact, Salve’s off -campus shuttle service was suspended on Saturday.

However, Salve security was very apprehensive about students walking to and from different buildings on-campus, so two of the on-campus shuttles were in operation up until 9 p.m., after which it was considered too dangerous to drive on the roads.

Mixter explained that it was very important that students had means of getting to and from Miley Cafeteria to eat; otherwise, students were encouraged to stay put in their dorms until the storm had passed.

“We were actually unable to use the security cruisers during the height of the storm, so many of the security officers used their own four-wheel-drive vehicles to patrol the campus,” Mixter said.

In addition to being adjustable and flexible in using their own vehicles for patrolling, some of Salve’s security officers were in for the long-haul when it was time to go home after their shift and the roads were far too dangerous to venture out on.

According to Mixter, a handful of security officers stayed on campus past their allotted shift and spent Saturday night in the Salve Secuity Office in Tobin Hall.

Ironically, it worked out quite well in the end, because other security officers were unable to make it into work on Sunday morning. Ray Dejesus, a Salve security officer of seven years, left Salve’s campus on Saturday afternoon and was not able to come back onto campus until Monday.

“It was coming down in buckets and I simply could not make it here,” Dejesus said. “Second shift [security officers] deserves the purple heart.”

Second shift security officers are not the only Salve staff members who deserve a “purple heart.” According to Russ Garnger, who has worked on the Salve ground’s crew for the past 30 years, Salve’s ground crew has been working 12-15 hours per day since the storm to remove the snow, regain parking lots, shovel sidewalks and steps and make the Salve campus safe for the Salve community.

“This storm was a huge one, with a lot of clean-up afterwards,” Garnger said. “It almost compared to the Blizzard of ’79.”

Garnger, who was at Salve for the Blizzard of ’78, and now for the Blizzard of ’05 as well, compared the two in terms of snow type and in terms of snow removal.

“The snow we got these past few days is much fluffier that the snow in ’78,” Garnger recollected. “The storm of ’78 was a heck of a storm that lasted about three days, whereas this storm was a quick mover and was in and out of here.”

And how is Salve’s snow removal equipment compared to 27 years ago? According to Garnger, Salve was working with a very small fleet of equipment back in 1978.

“We had one pick-up truck back then, one front-loader and a small plow,” Garnger said. And in 2005? “Salve now has two dump trucks, both with plows, two pick-up trucks, both with plows, a back-hoe, a small front-end-loader, a couple snow blowers and lots of shovels,” Garnger said.

Mixter, who was a Newport police officer during the Blizzard of ’78, also remembers the chaos that the storm brought. “Although it is a good comparison, the storm of ’78 was more intense,” Mixter said. He added, “In fact, the Newport Police Department was using National Guard Jeeps instead of police cars and we were using snow mobiles to patrol.”

According to Mixter, the Blizzard of ’78 accumulated approximately 48 inches of snow, whereas the Blizzard of ’05 accumulated approximately 22 inches.

Regardless of the amount of snow, Mixter was extremely impressed with the behavior of Salve students and their maturity in handling the excitement and anticipation of a big storm.

“The students were very responsible and acted in an adult manner, which made things run very smoothly,” Mixter said.

According to Garnger, Salve students have been wonderful about helping out with the snow removal, whether it was simply not being out on the roads so the grounds crew can better remove the snow or whether it was physically picking up a shovel and helping to move snow.

Gargner said, “There’s a lot of snow out there on a lot of steps and walkways. And Salve students are definitely grabbing shovels and pitching in.”

Bill Charboneau, Superintendent of Trades at Salve, commented that Salve is responsible for clearing all of the city streets in the Salve area, which includes the streets from Narragansett Ave to Ruggles Ave.

Due to the layout of Newport, many of these streets are one-way and relatively narrow, which makes parking on a clear, autumn day difficult.

When snow is added into the equation, things can get a bit messy.

According to Mixter, “We lost about 50 percent of our parking on the Salve campus, but thanks to the Salve grounds crew and the City of Newport’s efforts to clean the streets, we have regained most of the parking as of this afternoon [Tuesday].”

However, regaining the parking lots and the streets of Salve has been slow coming. Even though Salve is better equipped than 27 years ago, a lot of good old fashioned shoveling has gone into getting the campus back to normal. Gargner commented, “Parking at Salve is always curb-to-curb, so what’s new?”

Luckily, none of Salve’s buildings lost power during the storm. “There were a few drops in gas pressure, due to the cold, which caused a couple of heating problems with the boilers going out, which we re-set,” Charboneau said. “But other than that, we just concentrated on removing snow.”

One of Mixter’s main concerns in preparing for the Blizzard of ’05 was the issue of providing students with food. SodexHo, the company in charge of Salve’s Dining Services, had things under control and were well prepared for the blizzard.

Cecily Collins, who has been working with SodexHo for the past three years and has been stationed on the Salve campus since the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year, was working Saturday, Sunday and Monday — the three days that were consumed by the Blizzard of ’05.

On Friday, SodexHo made arrangements for Collins, who typically commutes from Providence to Newport for work, to stay at the Hampton Inn in Middletown so her commute would be shorter and safer to make on Saturday and Sunday mornings, during the height of the storm.

SodexHo paid for Collins to stay at the Hampton Inn both Friday and Saturday night, which, according to Collins, was vital to making it into work on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

“The roads were horrible on Sunday,” Collins said. “I have a new 2004 Volkswagon Jetta, which is front wheel drive, so I couldn’t make it anywhere. Even from the Hampton Inn in Middletown, I had to call my boss who has a truck and have him come pick me up to drive me to Salve.”

However, Collins dedication to work paid off. Salve’s on-campus students ate as usual, despite having a skeleton SodexHo crew of Collins as manager, a cook and a work study student who was swiping cards at the main desk.

“We were able to serve a normal menu on both Saturday and Sunday,” Collins said. Students enjoyed chicken parmesan, pizza, pasta, deli items and a salad bar on Saturday and deli items, a salad bar, pasta and roast pork and chicken patties on Sunday, according to Collins.

“There was plenty of hot chocolate for the students, too,” Collins added.

Approximately five years ago, Salve instituted an emergency response system that addresses different scenarios that might affect the Salve campus, such as blizzards and hurricanes, and how they might handle the situation.

According to Mixter, “At any given time, there is enough food on campus to feed on-campus student for approximately three to four days.” He continued, “Granted, there wouldn’t be ice cream and fresh produce, but there would certainly be enough pasta to go around.”

Salve’s off-campus students joined in the masses of Newport in getting ready for the storm and stocked up on milk, eggs, bread, snacks and beer to ensure that they would be well prepared for the snow.

Rebekah Clarke, a Salve senior, rented a bunch of DVDs from Blockbuster and stocked up on magazines to keep entertained during the storm. “If nothing else, this [storm] is an excuse to take it easy and catch up on sleep,” Clarke said.

According to NBC10 WJAR, Newport is in for yet another bout of snow on Wednesday and even more snow next week.

Mixter, who tries to keep up-to-date with the weather, said, “There is another storm headed this way next week which might just rival the storm we just had.” He added, “Now, of course, these storms change day by day and shift patterns, but the possibility is there.”