• Ball State facilities faculty work around the clock to clear snow after heavy snow.
• Muncie Mayor Dennis Tyler said city has plenty of salt while university runs dry.
• Associate vice president of facilities asks students to stay out of path of plows.
With the arrival of another snowstorm, Ball State facility staff members are working overtime to get streets and sidewalks cleared.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning from 1 p.m. Tuesday until today at 1 p.m.
The snow led Ball State to cancel classes until noon Wednesday.
Jean Wheat, a landscape worker, said this winter, extreme snow and ice isn’t anything new.
“We’ve been working a lot of hours, and we’re seeing more of our fellow workers than our family members,” she said. “So it’s been really tough.”
She said Tuesday that she planned to work until 11 p.m. and planned to come back at 5 o’clock this morning.
“So we’re working 16 hours [Tuesday] and only getting about four or five hours off and coming back in here,” Wheat said. “We just do what we can do with the help we’ve got and the equipment we’ve got.”
Muncie Mayor Dennis Tyler said with so much snow coming so quickly, it’s a challenge to keep streets clear.
“We did a pretty good job when that huge storm came through earlier this year, and we will do the same getting roads open as soon as we can [today],” Tyler said.
Kevin Kenyon, associate vice president of facilities, said the staff is ready and the sidewalks should be cleared off for students today, but he couldn’t make that a guarantee.
“It all depends on how this storm unfolds and how much snow actually falls,” he said. “We can’t make people work for 24 hours.”
Ball State sent an email Monday afternoon warning that a lack of salt may leave some areas of campus icy and difficult to navigate.
Wheat, who usually relies on salt to help keep walkways clear, said they are going to have to prioritize where they put it.
“Right now, it won’t [be a problem],” Wheat said Tuesday. “It’s continually snowing now, but when the snow has stopped, and we’ve got everything cleared, then we’ve got a problem.”
Although Ball State is running low on salt, Muncie still has plenty.
“We sent trucks to Michigan and the rest we have coming to us,” Tyler said. “We have all of that in, all of the trucks are up and ready to go.”
But Kenyon said Monday that Ball State wouldn’t be able to receive help from the city.
Wheat and Kenyon both said the most beneficial thing students can do is stay out of the way of snow plows.
“Just if they can respect what we’re doing,” Wheat said. “After we’ve been here for a while, it just gets a little monotonous.”
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