Like most homeowners in west-central Wisconsin, Mike Smith of Menomonie has had it up to his eyeballs — almost literally — with the record amount of snow that has fallen recently.
Mike Smith, UW-Stout grounds supervisor, said “Mother Nature has not been nice this year.”
His disdain for all the snow runs a little deeper, however. Smith is grounds supervisor at University of Wisconsin-Stout. He and four other staff members have had the unenviable job of keeping the sidewalks, driveways and parking lots cleared daily for more than 10,000 students, faculty, staff and visitors.
And it’s not just a driveway or sidewalk, the campus is about 17 miles of sidewalks and 26 acres of commuter parking lots. During the blizzard that hit Feb. 23-24, his crew worked nine hours on Sunday, Feb. 24, to clear campus and another five hours on Monday. The drifts were so high in some places, more than five feet, that the snowplows couldn’t get through. A front-end loader was used to break through the drifts one scoop at a time.
Smith has worked at UW-Stout for 11 years. “I’ve never seen anything like this winter,” he said.
