By Ben Riggleman and Alex Serrano

Snowbound Surfsite

At the South Portland Campus’ Surfsite Hall, some true New Englanders made the most of the weather. As the snow was falling, thick as ever, on Sunday night, Feb. 12, four students went sledding off “Surfsite Hill.” And as is traditional when the roads get slick, a couple brave daredevils did doughnuts in the main parking lot (though only for a few minutes at a stretch, to stay under Security’s radar).

Others spent the evening like a normal Saturday night: by watching women’s pro wrestling, South Park, or TV movies on the couches in the ground-floor lounge. Some bundled up to smoke a butt in the lee of the building. Others, of course, did homework.

Most of the students The Beacon spoke to were grateful for the reprieve from college’s daily grind. Others, though, said the change in routine threw them off their game. One remarked, a little wistfully, “I just can’t get into homework now, you know?”

Things felt a little different for the South Portland Facilities crew. That same evening, a Beacon correspondent interviewed custodian Pete Therrien. Warm and dry in Surfsite, Mr. Therrien would soon try to catch some Z’s — in his office, off the first-floor lounge. And it wasn’t the first time this winter he’d had to camp out.

“This is my second one. I had to sleep over on Thursday night,” he said. “And there’s supposed to be another big storm coming in Wednesday into Thursday. So it gets tedious after a while.” The week before, Mr. Therrien had 17 overtime hours. He expected to put in eight the following day.

The snow was falling at a rate of 4 inches an hour. As Mr. Therrien talked, plows and a front-end loader could be seen at work in the parking lot below Surfsite, scrambling to keep up with the accelerating Nor’easter. They were the night shift — “It’s gonna be a long night for them,” said Mr. Therrien. The whole phalanx would assemble early the next morning, and he ran down the lineup:

“Right now you’ve got four snowplows, you’ve got one bobcat working, and you got the big tractor that does the parking lots. And add to that, if you got the three crews together, we have about eight shovelers.”

(The shovel crew’s foreman, Tim Slane, would later clarify that the shovel crew is down from 14–16 men.)

Mr. Therrien outlined the next day’s chores: “We have to go to each building, shovel out the entrances, make sure every emergency exit is cleaned off. And we have, there’s also three, four pits that we have to clean, where we have to go down and throw the snow up.” Such, he said, are the “travails” of SMCC’s snow-removal team.

(The “pits” are below-ground stairwells on the sides of buildings; there’s one on the Pickett-street side of Spring Point. And they are more than a hassle. A couple of them are treacherous, with sagging excrescences of snow and lance-like icicles hanging 30 feet above the cornered shoveler.)

But, he went on, “We got a good crew, and everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing.”

“It’s pretty much rote,” he said. “They know the circuit. They all just work together.”

Still, it’s a good thing Pete Therrien enjoys being out in the snow.

A Reinforcement Arrives

Dean of Students Tiffanie Bentley sent out a message on the SMCC app that day: “Anyone interested in earning some extra money tomorrow helping to shovel out the campuses?” A tantalizing reward was offered: $10 an hour. But due, perhaps, to the app’s low profile — and the sheer hostility of the weather — only one student volunteered: Surfsite resident assistant Isaac McIntire.

Mr. McIntire worked with the crew from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Monday. In an email, he explained what motivated him to do battle with the elements:

“As an R.A. I thought it would be good to go and help. I really felt bad for the maintenance crew, which was working long hours (and they were short staffed). I didn’t expect to get paid. I mean, snow is snow, and it has to be moved. I grew up in New England, and snow is just a part of life.”

Mr. McIntire described the conditions as harsh but manageable “with proper equipment.” However, he wrote, getting around campus on foot was difficult: “The snow was 2–3 feet deep in places and up to my waist in the drifts.”

He had a metaphysical take on the experience: “I love the snow. It reminds us of how little is really in our control in our lives.”

No Rest for the Weary

Dean Bentley did not repeat her help-wanted offer for Tuesday. Nonetheless, when a Beacon correspondent showed up that morning at Facilities Management headquarters looking to pitch in (and get the scoop on shoveling), he found that help was still, indeed, wanted. He ended up hefting snow alongside the crew for almost eight hours.

Facilities Management had been severely short-handed during the blizzard blitz, missing about five employees due to injury and personal leave.

During a pause between spells of shoveling, our correspondent interviewed custodian Patrick Kenny and learned about the “travails” Pete Therrien had referred to.

Sunday night into Monday, Mr. Kenny was behind the wheel of a plow truck for 15 hours straight. After sleeping for two hours, he returned to shovel “for some hours after.” As he recounted matter-of-factly, “The total hours I worked — total — was 21. And the total shift was 23 for me.”

Patrick Kenny wasn’t the only one working literally around the clock. He said that another custodian, Andrew Napoli, had driven a Bobcat utility vehicle for nearly 24 hours — “He stopped for a couple breaks, and that was it.” Fellow crew-member Frank Moreau had manned the other Bobcat for 22 hours.