Building Services
The department of Building Services is comprised of forty-four Building Service workers (forty-three full-time and one part-time), a full-time mail person and truck driver, four full-time supervisors and one full-time manager (19 male and 25 female). Together we're responsible for the daily cleaning of sixty-one campus buildings, delivery of daily mail and supplies, daily event and conference set-ups and take downs, office relocations and in partnership with Cove/Halcyon, the consolidation and pick-up of recyclable materials.
The members of the department have four-hundred and thirty two (432.5) years of combined service to Wheaton College with the average length of service being 10.2 years. The median length of services is 7 years with one current employee in her 34th year. Six employees have been hired in the past year.
Eighteen Building Service workers report to Joyce Jancinto, Building Services Supervisor with primary responsibility for traditional residence halls. Eleven Building Service workers report to Ed DoCouto, Building Services Supervisor with primary responsibility for student houses and academic and athletic facilities. Eight building service workers report to Maria Correia, who has primary responsibility for academic and athletic facilities during the second shift. Two employees report to John Mitchell, our Materials Management, Moves and Event Set-Up/Take-Down Supervisor. The Department of Building Services is led by Manager, Patti Tessitore.
In addition to our daily responsibilities of cleaning the residence, academic and support buildings, our department handles special cleaning requests such as carpet shampooing, floor stripping and refinishing, emergency response cleaning and post-renovation cleaning. We also assist in the planning and implementation of carpet removal/installation and work with other departments of Physical Plant to coordinate phases of reconstruction/renovation. We may also be able to assist in the selection/coordination of the hiring of outside contractors, depending on the scope of the work to be performed. Requests for service may be made by writing up a work order.
One of the strangest work orders received was for ridding the President's house of a skunk odor. After the Grounds Department captured and relocated the skunks and blocked off the entrances to the basement, the odor remained. We finally discovered that the skunks had an elaborate nest under the garage and that a large pile of insulating material had to be removed. An environmental company crawled underneath the garage and removed the insulating material and we returned to treat the area with an odor enzyme counteractant. It took several days and the cooperation of three departments within the Physical Plant but the result was the skunks and the odors were eliminated.
I'll bet you didn't know that: Two members of the Department of Building Services, Maria Correia and Janet Sebetes, are Certified Pool Operators and are responsible for maintaining the water quality and safety of the Haas Pool. They were certified by Nationwide Aquatic Consulting and will be re-certified every two years. AND, that the Haas Pool contains approximately 500,000 gallons of water. AND, that our department completed over 1154 work orders last fiscal year or 96 per month on average.