Faces of Facilities

Photo | Mason Poepperling Director of Facilities Don Rose is seen here at the center of where most of his job happens. Rose directed facility workers to where they need to be at any given time.

FACES

of Facilities

A look at the department that keeps Hutchinson Community College running

Photos & Story | Mason Poepperling

They are the unsung heroes of the college campus. They’re the ones who do the work that needs to be done when no one else can. They are the Hutchinson Community College facility workers. From custodians to mechanics, grounds keepers to locksmiths, these are the people who are always there to keep the campus running, even if their work is done behind the scenes.

At the center of campus facilities is Director of Facilities Don Rose. As the director, Rose oversees all building systems including mechanical, electrical, fire/life safety, plumbing, and waste management. These responsibilities lead to a very busy day-to-day schedule for Rose.

“I have a lot of meetings,” he said. “It always seems like one meeting after another some days. We do a lot of work with our employees. We have several building projects as well as maintenance projects that come through this office. Any time that we are soliciting bids from contractors to do jobs, it’s coming out of this office.”

This all seems like a lot for one man to handle, which is why Rose has to communicate with many different coordinators for certain maintenance aspects, which certainly makes his job a whole lot easier.

“We have several coordinators who are in supervisory positions as well. We have five different coordinators working within this department, supervising and directing the dayto-day action. Everything from custodial, grounds maintenance, security, bus driving, bus repair, comes out of this office as well,” Rose said.

One of the coordinators that Rose works with is David Maness, Coordinator of Campus Safety. It’s his job to take care of anything concerning the safety and security of everyone on campus.

“After I retired from the police department, I needed a job for insur-

ance. The old coordinator left and I thought it might be an interesting thing to do,” Maness said.

As a coordinator, Maness has one of the most important responsibilities when it comes to the campus: student security.

“One of the biggest concerns with parents that are sending their students to college is that, since this is a two-year college, this is the first time that they’ve actually left home,” Maness said. “It’s more concerning to parents than it is to students because they want to make sure that they’re sending their child some place that is safe.”

Of course, there’s always the eventual issues one might come across with a job as complex as Rose’s. While some may want a quick fix with maintenance issues, in today’s times, that might not be as simple. “We’re not magicians, I will say that,” Rose said. “We can’t always have the right answer that people would like.”

Despite this however, it is impossible to deny that those in the facilities department are doing what they can to keep the campus running as smoothly as possible. One person that is a part of this process is Duke Burgey, who does General Maintenance.

“I’m a Journeyman Electrician already,” Burgey said, which refers to an electrician who is adaptable to many different situations. “I’ve been in the field for around 40 years. I’ve been around all kinds of stuff, mostly electrical.”

Burgey’s adaptability to many different situations and maintenance types is a skill that he would describe as vital to anyone starting in a similar position.

“There’s a lot of different things. It’s not just one thing you take care of. You take care of windows, you take care of screens, moving furniture, ect. There’s a wide variety of different things that the maintenance department does. In my area, I hit on everything, so I gotta know a little bit about what’s going on,” Burgey Said.

People like Burgey who can tackle many different maintenance issues are exactly the type of people the maintenance department is looking for.

It’s this sort of adaptability, the ability to be able to maintain every facet of the campus when it is needed that, according to Don Rose, is the most important aspect of someone who’s good at their maintenance job.

“The best custodian or the best maintenance person is one that you never knew was already there,” Rose said. “Because if the place is clean that’s something you would expect. You never think when something is working about this department.”

At the end of the day, when it comes to maintenance, what is seen is usually much simpler than what goes on underneath the surface. So, whenever we see a custodian cleaning the windows of the classroom, mopping the floor, or whatever else they might be doing, let’s take a moment to think about the facilities department and everything they do for this institution.

Photo | Mason Poepperling Seen here at his desk in the campus saftey office on the opposite side of the Lockman Hall Parking Lot is security coordinator David Maness. It is here that Mannes takes care of any security issue that arrise on campus.