Campus shutdown hasn’t stopped crew from keeping grounds looking as green and clean as possible
It’s a beautiful late weekday morning, sunny with some billowing clouds, at Golden West College.
In any other year, the crewmembers would be putting finishing touches on the quad grounds in preparation for Commencement, which had been scheduled for the following day, May 21.
But 2020 hasn’t been any other year.
Since April 1, when they returned to work following a two-week shutdown caused by the COVID-19 crisis, members of GWC’s grounds crew have been keeping busy maintaining the pristine, park-like atmosphere of the campus — just as they always do.
Because the campus has been quiet since the pandemic began in mid-March, Manager of Maintenance and Operations Frank Fonseca and his team have been catching up on projects they otherwise would be too busy to focus on during normal times, when the college is bustling with students, faculty and staff.
“We’ve taken advantage of people not being around,” says Fonseca. “For example, we’re doing a major landscaping renovation, with brand-new irrigation and grass, outside the bookstore.”
The grounds crew also is doing their normal duties: mow and water the grass, clean up fallen branches and other debris, empty the trash, and do other things to keep the college beautiful — with or without people around.
When people do return to the college, Fonseca and his team know they’ll be coming back to clean and beautiful grounds.
Some things even a scary virus can’t change.
“I’m very proud of our team,” Fonseca says. “They work tirelessly behind the scenes, as do a great number of our Golden West College colleagues. We’re just a small part of a bigger family that works hard for our campus community.”
Pride in their work
They call Fonseca the Road Runner, since he’s always buzzing around campus in his yellow golf cart.
“Frank really cares,” says recently- retired Son Nguyen, the former mechanic on the grounds crew who makes sure the vehicles and tools and other equipment are in tip-top shape.
“Without Frank,” Nguyen adds, “the campus wouldn’t look like this. He should get all the credit because he drives our team to a high level. He’s very committed.”
Grounds crew member Juan Barrera says, “He is a good manager. We can count on Frank as being one of us. He works at the same pace we do. He comes out here and kicks butt.”
About two years ago, GWC spent a sizable investment replacing very outdated grounds crew work trucks with six brand-new yellow models. In addition to these trucks, which have flat beds that hold every tool and piece of equipment imaginable, from chainsaws to leaf blowers, the crew uses three Groundsmaster 3200 Toro ridealong mowers.
“We have great support from management,” Nguyen says. “Without upper management giving us the equipment and tools, we couldn’t do our jobs.”
Fonseca, Barrera and other members of the grounds crew — Jeff Borland, Nicolas Avila Moreira, Santiago Rodriguez, Marcelino Ramirez, Julio Bravo, and Ildefonso Flores — take great pride in their work.
“We do miss our students,” Ramirez says. “The campus is more enjoyable with them around.”
Ramirez has worked on the grounds crew for four years.
“We work as a team,” he says. “There are times when some students will come early to study and say hello to us. They love that the campus looks like a park. They thank us for maintaining it. That’s motivation for me — it just makes me feel good that people appreciate what we do.”
After the campus closed for a couple of weeks in March, Fonseca still reported to work to keep an eye on things, along with Joe Dowling, director of Maintenance and Operations.
Since April 1, the grounds crewmembers have been part of some 60 employees deemed essential workers, along with members of Public Safety, Information Technology, and a handful of others. Pre-COVID-19, some 400-plus staff and faculty were on campus daily.
“I’m usually in meetings, interacting with people, so for me, it’s been really quiet,” Dowling says. “I’m not really enjoying the shutdown, because the work we do here is for the students, faculty, and staff. But we’re still happy to be doing our job making the campus as nice, pleasant and safe of an environment as possible for everyone.”
It takes three days to mow the entire 21-acre campus, Fonseca notes. Like most other college campuses, golf courses, and the like, the grass at GWC is the tropical species known as kikuyu.
“It’s very hardy,” Fonseca says. “It’s very thick. I love this stuff. It’s great. It stays green all year. We water it three times a week.”
The quad is dotted with numerous Chinese Pistache trees on the grass, and some eucalyptus and jacaranda trees, along with flowering trumpet vines, on the perimeter.
Throughout the campus there are hundreds of trees and landscaping features that demand a well-coordinated team to maintain.
“It’s all about these guys,” Fonseca says of the grounds crew. “They all have pride. They love this campus,
and it shows.”
