Although it was the second day of spring, Temple’s main campus saw almost a foot of snow on Wednesday thanks to the fourth Nor’Easter this month that made an impact up and down the east coast.
A significant stretch of snowfall that started Wednesday morning around 9 a.m. kept Temple facilities workers like Jason Leinhauser on campus to battle the conditions. “I’ve been doing this for 16 years, so this is like my 500th snow storm. I’m kind of used to it,” he said.
Leinhauser, along with 21 of his colleagues, maintained pathways around campus throughout the duration of the storm. He was one of two workers assigned to shovel stairways and tight spots across the campus grid, while Bobcat machines plowed the rest. Associate vice president of Service Operations John W. Johnson Jr. says the Main Campus Grounds Department had 13 machines running removal routes, along with four large machines spreading ice melt.
Additionally, the main campus housekeeping staff worked in three shifts to maintain entrances and steps of every Temple building.
“This weather is not fun,” Leinhauser said while shoveling the sidewalk. “But you gotta do what you gotta do.”
“This is not spring,” one student told Temple Update’s Jon Dowding on Wednesday. “This is snow and winter.”
A statement from John W. Johnson Jr.’s office said the hundreds of employees that worked round the clock to make campus safe “deserve our thanks and appreciation.”
He says grounds will inspect the entire campus and continue to clean up areas until temperatures rise.
You can view photos of the storm’s effect on main campus here.
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