College of the Holy Cross

Part one of a two-part interview with James D. Long, Superintendent of Grounds

By Jenny Boyle, regional editor

In the spring, all beds are trimmed and grass clippings, leaves and weeds are composted and used in planting and transplanting. Here, the greenhouse division tends to beds planted with azaleas and petunias. Photos courtesy of College of the Holy Cross

Imagine trying to mow a steep hillside by tying a rope to the lawn mower, letting it roll down the hill, and then straining to pull it back up. Though it may sound ridiculous by today?EUR??,,????'???s standards, that?EUR??,,????'???s exactly how they used to do it when James Long began his career at College of the Holy Cross?EUR??,,????'????EUR??,,????'???48 years ago.

Yes, you read me right, Mr. Long has been part of the maintenance team at the Worcester, Mass. university for nearly a half-century and he is an incredible witness and contributor to the advancement of land care technology.

The grounds team spends the winter months removing snow and ice from the 122 stairways, loading docks, curb cuts, roads and parking lots on campus. The heaviest equipment, like this Caterpillar 930 loader, is used to clear the nearly 22 acres of parking lots.

?EUR??,,????'??Everything has improved,?EUR??,,????'?? says Long. ?EUR??,,????'??When I came here 48 years ago, we were using sickles to cut the grass on the hills. Then we went to the mower with the rope.?EUR??,,????'??

Long explains that back when his career began, lawn mowers were not built with a pump, so if the mower was tipped at an angle it would create an unpleasant cloud of smoke from the dripping oil. They had to come up with inventive ways to cut the grass on the campus?EUR??,,????'???s many slopes.

?EUR??,,????'??It was hard work,?EUR??,,????'?? says Long. ?EUR??,,????'??One year we weighed ourselves before and after [the spring mowing season] and we lost a total of 350 pounds between all of us!?EUR??,,????'??

Lawn mowers aren?EUR??,,????'???t the only thing Long has seen change on his journey from farm hand, to foreman, and finally to superintendent beginning in the mid-70s. Over time, the grounds maintenance team has developed an effective snow removal routine, built a green house that grows over 10,000 annuals, established an arboretum with over 115 varieties of trees and shrubs, and restructured the department into efficient subgroups that manage the entire campus and beyond with the help of students and work-release participants. His dedication and love for the job shows in his tireless efforts to educate his peers and promote the good work of his own employees.

The school has its own greenhouse where over 10,000 annuals, like these new wave petunias, are grown. The greenhouse division also raises plants for free adoption by students. The team applies cultural practices, like using safe soap, to keep plants pest-free.

A Well-Rounded Team

Long says the past two years of restructuring have really made a difference in the team?EUR??,,????'???s efficiency.

?EUR??,,????'??We divided up into four divisions,?EUR??,,????'?? he says. ?EUR??,,????'??Each division is made up of three people and logs 120 man-hours a week. We?EUR??,,????'???re very busy.?EUR??,,????'??

A crewmember cuts the flat area next to the arboretum with an Exmark ride-on mower, which can also be taken on moderate slopes. The durable turfgrass is cut slightly higher than normal so it grows in thicker and prevents weeds.

Each of the four divisions cares for a specific portion of the five-level campus. The greenhouse division deals primarily with landscaping and maintaining the school?EUR??,,????'???s flowerbeds and hedges, as well as caring for the on-site cemetery, where many Jesuit priests are buried. They also run a plant adoption program.

?EUR??,,????'??We don?EUR??,,????'???t just cut grass. This is a trade.?EUR??,,????'???EUR??,,????'??+James D. Long, superintendent of grounds

?EUR??,,????'??We raise quite a number of house plants for adoption,?EUR??,,????'?? says Long. ?EUR??,,????'??We even baby sit them over the vacation time for students who leave.?EUR??,,????'??

The turf division deals mainly with grass cutting and internal moving jobs. And, as Long mentioned before, mowing the grass has come a long way from the simple mowers he started with.

?EUR??,,????'??There?EUR??,,????'???s a big difference between the rotary mower and the real mower,?EUR??,,????'?? he says. ?EUR??,,????'??With a real mower, you couldn?EUR??,,????'???t cut the grass if it was four inches tall. When the rotary mower came out, it was the greatest thing.?EUR??,,????'??

Any tree that dies or is cut down is replaced with a tree of the same species to keep arboretum information correct. Around 30 to 40 new trees or shrubs are planted each year, some with the help of this IT Caterpillar loader.

The third division manages the tool crib, performs signage repairs, inspects catch basins and cares for all off-campus properties. In the winter, this division is in charge of galvanizing students and work-release participants to shovel snow. The final division is solely devoted to maintaining the school?EUR??,,????'???s athletic fields. An additional two people are also in charge of the motor pool. They maintain the school?EUR??,,????'???s 60 vehicles, as well as the equipment used by the grounds team; performing scheduled maintenance on the equipment and making sure all machinery is properly operating.

?EUR??,,????'??They?EUR??,,????'???re meticulous in setting things up safety wise,?EUR??,,????'?? he says.

The success of his team comes with the ability to focus on the most-needed tasks each day.

?EUR??,,????'??I meet with the foremen each day and we look at any work orders,?EUR??,,????'?? he says. ?EUR??,,????'??We see who needs the most of the labor pool and then we go in our four different directions.?EUR??,,????'??

Even though the teams are divided into their own daily tasks, they come together when the need arises?EUR??,,????'????EUR??,,????'???and teamwork is essential in that part of Massachusetts, where the onset of winter can mean months of shoveling snow.

All weeding at Holy Cross is done by hand throughout the season as needed. Here, a team member pulls weeds beneath a Golden Chain tree in full bloom.

Snow Days

When the snow begins to fall on the Holy Cross campus, the structure and tasks of the maintenance team change considerably. Generally, from November to March the team spends days, nights and even weekends clearing snow from walkways, stairs, parking lots and roads.

?EUR??,,????'??In New England we?EUR??,,????'???re in the heavy snow belt,?EUR??,,????'?? says Long. ?EUR??,,????'??We had over 100 inches of snow last winter.?EUR??,,????'??

The school is situated on the northern slope of Mt. St. James and all that snow has to go somewhere. Long breaks his crew into two shifts?EUR??,,????'????EUR??,,????'???one works the daylight hours and the other comes in the afternoon and stays until midnight. Crewmembers also take turns being on-call, and when the storms get bad, the team is prepared to set up camp for a few days rather than risk commuting in the dangerous weather.

?EUR??,,????'??Snow removal can be one of the most taxing jobs because the crew often has to stay around the clock,?EUR??,,????'?? says Long.

Student volunteers in the turf division must wear football cleats when mowing the grass on steeper slopes. They use John Deere JX85 21" walk-behind mowers with mulching kits to cut the Kentucky Blue Grass and Manhattan Rye mix. In the days before the rotary mower, the grass on hills was cut with a sickle or left to grow out and then burned in August.

Plowing the 22 acres of parking lots proves to be a big challenge because the team must deal with boarding students. The school has setup a system to notify dorm residents when they must move their cars from one parking lot to another, so that Long?EUR??,,????'???s team can access the areas for snow removal.

?EUR??,,????'??It?EUR??,,????'???s like musical chairs,?EUR??,,????'?? he says.

To prevent the environmental damage that salt can cause, Long established a five-step process to remove snow from the roads, walkways and slopes on campus. The crew limits salt to hills and rises because it will usually dilute by the time it runs off into the drains. On flat ground, they use only sand. Long actually designed and installed a baffle, or skirt-like piece, that attaches to the back of the salt truck and prevents the sand from spraying parked cars or students walking by.

?EUR??,,????'??It keeps the sand in the middle of the road, about the width of the truck,?EUR??,,????'?? he says. ?EUR??,,????'??It allows traffic to spread it where it needs to go.?EUR??,,????'??

To help with the snow removal process, Long employs student helpers and work release people from the Worcester County jail. He says the work release program was started years ago and is beneficial for both parties involved.

?EUR??,,????'??Half the money they earn goes to their room and board and the other half to restitution,?EUR??,,????'?? he explains. ?EUR??,,????'??It?EUR??,,????'???s good for the community and it?EUR??,,????'???s good for them.?EUR??,,????'??

Mowers are serviced every 100 hours by the certified fleet mechanics in the motor pool division. The grounds crew fleet of mowers includes 12 John Deere walk-behind mowers, three Toro Proline 44" mowers, two Exmark Lazer 72" mowers and one Jacobson TriKing 96?EUR??,,????'?? mower. The two men in the motor pool are also department safety officers.

Spring Cleaning

Around March, the snow melts away and the different divisions begin what Long calls the ?EUR??,,????'??heavy cleanup.?EUR??,,????'??

?EUR??,,????'??If there?EUR??,,????'???s leaf-fall in autumn and we?EUR??,,????'???re still trying to pick those leaves up during the first snow storm, we don?EUR??,,????'???t see bare ground for a long time and it means heavy clean up in the spring,?EUR??,,????'?? he explains.

The team does major mulching, which has been made easier since they converted their entire fleet of lawnmowers to mulching mowers.

?EUR??,,????'??We used to have to haul everything to a yard waste site,?EUR??,,????'?? he says. ?EUR??,,????'??Converting to mulching kits is better. Leaves and anything else but grass gets composted.?EUR??,,????'??

The green house crew begins trimming hedges and planting new annuals and the athletic division commences its preparations for upcoming sporting events. As spring turns to summer, work release participants are replaced with students who once again have the time to help with grounds work.

The hillside campus has many slopes, which are prone to washout and erosion. The team uses wooden pegs to hold sod in place until it knits?EUR??,,????'????EUR??,,????'???usually within two to three weeks. Though seed is sometimes used on level ground, the landscape team prefers sod for its instant effect.

The Arboretum

One of the things Long is most proud of is the school?EUR??,,????'???s arboretum. He says back in the early 1980s, many of the trees on campus were in decline.
?EUR??,,????'??We took each tree and basically gave it a physical,?EUR??,,????'?? (as in, a medical physical) explains Long. ?EUR??,,????'??We had an inventory of all these trees and we thought, ?EUR??,,????'??Gee, it would be nice to put an arboretum book together.?EUR??,,????'????EUR??,,????'??

After discovering that one of the trees on campus had been planted by Theodore Roosevelt following the commencement exercises of 1905, Long was able to obtain a grant to put together an arboretum booklet. It identifies the 115 varieties of trees and shrubs located on campus, and it is used by many of the 35,000 students living in and around Worcester.

Two crewmembers use Toro and Stihl trimmers on the grounds at Holy Cross. The landscape division spends an average of three to four hours a day trimming, and that happens continuously throughout the spring season.

Establishing a Trade

Long began his career at Holy Cross when he was taken under the wing of Jesuit priests as a kid.

?EUR??,,????'??They made me read and do book reports,?EUR??,,????'?? he says. ?EUR??,,????'??They taught me to be resourceful.?EUR??,,????'??

As he matured and his interest in grounds maintenance grew, he took courses at Penn State to build up his knowledge of landscape design and management practices. Over the years, he has written 25 articles and periodicals and co-authored a grounds chapter in the snow management section of a book for the Association of Physical Plant Administrators of University and Colleges. He says he is focused on classifying what his team does as a distinguished trade.

?EUR??,,????'??We don?EUR??,,????'???t just cut grass,?EUR??,,????'?? he says. ?EUR??,,????'??This is a trade. I want people to get certified.?EUR??,,????'??

Several of his employees have obtained certifications at his encouragement and the school is beginning to recognize the true importance of the work they do. Even after 48 years, Long says he has no intention of slowing down.

?EUR??,,????'??We should get the point across about what it is we do,?EUR??,,????'?? he says. ?EUR??,,????'??It?EUR??,,????'???s our fight.?EUR??,,????'??

_—See part two of this feature in the LSMP September/October issue when we take an in-depth look at the management practices of the Athletic Division._