David Copley – Staff Writer 

Dordt University students returned from their Christmas breaks to a campus covered in snow.  

Continuous sub-zero temperatures paired with a number of intense storms created piles of snow. Removing this snow from Dordt’s roads and sidewalks has been no simple task. Though the spring semester started off in a flurry, it isn’t the worst of weather conditions that Dordt’s maintenance staff has seen.  

Craig Van Otterloo, the head of the grounds department, considers this one of the better years he’s seen.  

“Last year was much worse,” Van Otterloo said.  

Unlike previous years, the full force of  snow didn’t arrive until  after students had left for winter break, which gave his crew plenty of time to work. The snow removal team cleared the ten-inch cover of snow from the parking lots, so they were ready for returning students to use. Overall, Van Otterloo said the snow itself could have been much worse. 

However, things certainly are not perfect. The temperatures were so far below zero, reaching a low of negative 17 degrees on Saturday, Jan. 13. Much of the equipment couldn’t function properly. 

 “I was fixing equipment from Thursday to last Tuesday,” Van Otterloo said.  

Since the crew only has only four dedicated vehicles to use for snow removal, any equipment that is out of order will quickly snowball the amount of work needed to get the job done. 

Van Otterloo noted the students working “doorway crew” have a particularly difficult job. They are responsible for unsticking and often unearthing frozen doors from the snow which gets blown in and built up around them. This means being outside and working by four in the morning so that faculty, namely chefs who have to prepare breakfast at the commons, can get where they need to be.