By Michael B. Murphy
Assistant News Editor
Even after a three-day overtime shift shoveling, plowing and salting the Framingham State campus, it looks like Facilities’ Nemo clean-up efforts are still not over.
In addition to dumping nearly 30 inches of snow on FSU, the historic storm’s frigid, icy conditions caused some concrete tiles located in front of the McCarthy Center to become dislodged and dangerous to walk on, Facilities Director Warren Fairbanks said Tuesday.
The area has ben roped off with caution tape and orange pylons to keep students from stepping on the wobbly tiles on their way inside the building until they can be fixed. As of Wednesday afternoon, though, the caution tape has been detached from the cones, and many students have been walking through the damaged area.
Fairbanks said the support for the tiles has been “displaced” and, because of that, they are “going to rock every time once you step on [them].”
The original installer of the tiles, Fairbanks said, has been called into “basically reset the entire deck.”
Fairbanks estimated the repairs could take on to two weeks and will cost “in the $5,000 t0 $10,000 range.
What we expect might happened is the roof drain underneath the tiles … probably froze during the storm and that pushed up, from underneath, the tiles,” he said. “It seemed to happen right after the storm.”
While an inconvenience, Fairbanks said the repairs are a project that had to be completed eventually and will allow Facilities to “clean out the roof drain and clean out the debris” as well as “see if the integrity of the roof is still good.
“We had been thinking about doing it because every now and then we’ll get a tile that would rock. … We were thinking about waiting until the [summer] break, but I think that will be too long so we will have him get it done as soon as [the installer] has the time to,” Fairbanks said.
The tiled entrance to the McCarthy Center, installed about eight years ago, covers the roof to the Dining Commons, explained Fairbanks.
“None of the tiles cracked – they’re still good,” he added. “That kind of surprised me, but that’s a good sign.”
Sophomore Criminology major Tori Sepavich said she is unhappy with the progress of the tiles being replaced.
“I think it’s pretty ridiculous that they haven’t fixed them yet and simply highlighted the problem with orange cones and yellow tape. They have seemingly just elft that stuff there and people are still tripping,” Sepavich said.
Senior Communication Arts major Samantha Solimini was angered as well.
“I think it’s dangerous that they haven’t been fixed yet, not onfly for the students but for the number of elderly faculty members and visitors who are also tripping on them and are risking being severly injured. It’s such a high volume, high traffic area of campus and people are tripping constantly. There’s no excuse for them not being fixed yet,” Solimini said.
Junior Criminology major Jasmin Hathaway-Houston said she fell and hurt her foot on the tiles.
“I stepped on it wrong and I sprained my ankle. It hurt like hell,” she said.
Hathaway-Houston said a doctor had told her the ankle was sprained and that she is fine now “but it hurt for like a week.”