Grinnell Col

lege

Grinnell, Iowa
4/22/77 Vol. 85, No. 24

 

 

 

Wednesday's Skip Day act' ities
were nlcntiiul and varied. Asove,
the Iowa Mountain Boys. ti. to r.)
Dave Kapp. Mike Salsich and Bob
: tchcll, pcriorm. At right, Dave
Kapp warms up for the huhhlegnm
among contest. Below, u sculp-
ture of yarn adorns central
campus,

t

Photos by Dave Roscnbaum and
Steve Silberberg

 

 

 

Physical inadequacies
plague Food Service

Student opinion on the Food
Service’s operation has been for
the most part positive, yet some
very serious problems exist that
have not been Widely publicized, A
major concern for Dave Mc-
Connell, director of the Food
Service, is the physical condition
of the kitchen facilities of Quad and
Cowles.

Cowles Hall was built in 1941-42
and was not entirely completed in
sections, The building has unr
dergone at least three renovations;
yet McConnell Said, “to the best of
my knowledge the kitchen was
never completed."

The most noticeable area of
incomplete construction is the
ceiling that is located over the
storage freezers in the northwest
corner of the kitchen area.
Hanging from the ceiling are
electrical lighting and power lines.
This area is within twenty feet of
open cooking facilities.

When questioned about this
Haw-n suggested that at the time
when the walk~in freezers were put
in, the funds were not available to
complete that work. Gerald Ar»
ment, manager of the mechanical
systems at the Physical Plant,
said, “The freezers were put in
Cowles in 1973.” Four years later
that situation has not been rec-
tified.

An inspection of Cowles kitchen
and surrounding preparation areas
reveals open cracks and crevices
in the floors and walls, One of the
worst area's is near the dish
machine. This situation is caused,
in part, by the many different

 

by Roy Barnes

types of equipment housed in the
kitchen during the last 35 years.

Another area that is of particular
concern to both McConnell and
Dan Fossum, manager of Cowles.
is an unused area that is below the
kitchen facilities. This room
contains a large amount of
plumbing connections, boilers and
water heaters, The room connects
with tunnels that run underneath
the kitchen area and dining hall.

When there is a backup within
the Cowles Hall sewage system,
the floor of this room has filled up
‘with six to eight inches of sewage
from the kitchen area, and, at
times, with raw sewage from the
toilet facilities in Cowles Hall. On
these occasions. raw sewage is
Within twen sfive feet of the
cooking iacilities,

When questioned ' on the
frequency of these back-ups,
Fossum replied, “We had the worst
late last fall . . . it is still occurring
but not with anywhere near the
severity oflast fall," Fossum went
on, “the old timers on my staff can
just about predict when we'll have
a sewage problem." The backrups
usually take place when the system
is overloaded. The plumbing
system is overloaded after a period
of inactivity such as the winter and
summer vacations. The pipes
coagulate with grease and other
materials and when there is a
sudden increase of use when the
students return, the system simply
can’t handle it.

In addition to the basement
room, there are three drains on the
main floor of die kitchen which

periodically back up With sewage.
“This happened last week,” ac-
cording to Fossum, “It is a
situation Where the system is
overloaded . . . the drains and the
room in the basement and the
tunnel system also contribute to
our problem of locating and
stopping the pest problem."

Cockroaches, rats and mice are
problems in Cowles and, to a lesser
extent. in Quad, The college now
employs a private exterminator to
treat Certain areas.

When Herbert Horn, the ex
terminator, treated the kitchens of
Cowles and Quad last summer he
was amazed at the results, par-
ticularly in the Cowles basement.
“This place was unbelievable,” he
said, “you could barely put your
foot down without stepping on ten
of them. I’ve been in the business
sixteen years and that was the
worst I had ever seen."

Horn also said. ”This place
toowlesl has literally thousands of
places where cockroaches can
breed and live." Yet McConnell is
determined. “I‘ll pay anything to
get rid of those damn roaches," he
said.

The improvement the Food
Service has made in the area of
pest control is evident to those who
were aware of the conditions last
year. Horn feels that “the situation
has improved tremendously" since
he was hired. Jo Ryles, who has
worked more than thirty years at
Cowles believes, “the (pest)
Control . . . here has the kitchen and
the dining areas the cleanest I‘ve
ever seen them.” ,

{continued on page 2)

 

Energy committee slow to act

As the Physical Plant and the
Energy Committee are
discovering, creating a program
[or conserving energy at Grinnell
College can be both costly and
timerconsuming.

Dale Hawn, director of the
Physical Plant, says that he is
awaiting the arrival of several
steam and electricity meters,
which he plans to have installed in
buildings on campus as well as in
two representative dorms, one on
north campus and one on south.
The total cost of the meters, in-
cluding valverfittings and in-
stallation, will be about $6400.

Once the meters are in place,
Hawn does not expect to have
complete information on the
amount of steam and electricity
entering individual buildings for
about one year. Therefore, he
expects that no proposals for ex-
tensive changes in heating and
lighting systems can be made until
then.

Hawn docs anticipate, though,
that the college will insulate the
dorms, as suggested in the Dober
report, This would involve placing
sheet rock on exterior walls and
insulating foam in the attics,

ritl: Asa .. i. ..

 

by Susan Dufiey

study heating imbalances within
buildings caused by faulty
equipment. At present, the
Physical Plant does not even make
checks of its equipment, until it
receives complaints from students
or faculty.

Created last fall, the Energy
Committee has been slow to act,
primarily because its members do
not agree on what it can and should
do. Hawn, who is chairman of the
Energy Committee, maintains that
the committee should “monitor
total energy consumption on
campus," Yet, he admits mat
much time has been spent just
informing the members of the
“types of energy used and how
they are transmitted.”

Luther Erickson, a committee
member, believes that the com~
mittee should be doing more to
make students and faculty aware
of the college's energy problems.
He would like to see the committee
work out a program of energy
education for use next year,

The committee has done little
during the last few weeks simply
because it has met infrequently.
No meetings have been held since,
spring break. rlawn says that this

 

free time." As a result, the coins
mittee has not yet decided on
appropriate “comfort levels" oi
heat and light for the average
Grinnellian. These standards,
according to Hawn, must be
agreed upon before comparisons
can be made and changes
suggested,

The college recently purchased

'two light intensity meters and

issued them to the student memr
bers of the Energy Committee,
Keith Harmon and Randy Craig.
With them, Harmon and Craig are
making an unsystematic study of
illumination levels in buildings on
campus.

Erickson notes that preliminary
measurements Show that few overr
illuminated areas exist. In fact, as
some students might suspect, there
are several seriously under-
illuminated areas. At present,
neither the Energy Committee nor
the Physical Plant has any plans to
use the meters in a systematic
study of campus lighting,

Because of the time and money
involved in simply studying
heating and lighting, significant
energy conservation will probably

‘be‘slow in'coming to Grinnell

 

