Bronko Nagurski Gopher
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From article: Urgent work began Friday morning and was to continue all night to get Beaver Stadium ready for Penn State’s homecoming game against Minnesota today.
But the four inches or so of snow still covering the stadium’s bench seats late Friday afternoon probably will not be removed in time for the 3:30 p.m. kick-off, Penn State officials said.
“The time frame was just so close to the game that the stadium is certainly not going to be clear and dry. My impression ... was that very little of it (the stands for more than 100,000 people) would be cleared,” said Paul Ruskin, Office of Physical Plant spokesman.
“The university,” he added, “is asking the fans to be prepared to put up with snow in the seating and they should bring warm and waterproof clothing and a kind weather attitude.”
Ruskin said the stadium ramps and other walkways would be cleared. Two dozen or more salamander heaters — tubular high-heat machines — were blasting warmth at the underside of the stands Friday afternoon.
Officials considered washing down the stands with the stadium’s fire protection hoses to try to clear the seats, said one work crew member. However, they had not done so by late Friday afternoon.
The university tried without success to use inmates from the Centre County Correctional Institution to clear the stadium. But the 10 to 15 inmates who might have done such work were already booked Friday and, in any event, there wouldn’t have been enough lead time to process insurance paperwork and the like, county officials said.
University janitors who normally work elsewhere on campus were pressed into duty for much of the day to clear snow from the stadium’s tarped playing field. A phalanx of janitors 10 or so abreast trudged back and forth across the field, using push brooms to move the snow to the sidelines. Payloaders and dump trucks took it from there.
Ruskin said 200 janitors were scheduled to work a mandatory double shift Friday, returning for a second 8-hour shift after completing the first. To light the night shifts, a dozen or more Ingersoll-Rand construction light towers were trucked to the stadium Friday afternoon.
http://www.centredaily.com/news/breaking_news/story/1571743.html
But the four inches or so of snow still covering the stadium’s bench seats late Friday afternoon probably will not be removed in time for the 3:30 p.m. kick-off, Penn State officials said.
“The time frame was just so close to the game that the stadium is certainly not going to be clear and dry. My impression ... was that very little of it (the stands for more than 100,000 people) would be cleared,” said Paul Ruskin, Office of Physical Plant spokesman.
“The university,” he added, “is asking the fans to be prepared to put up with snow in the seating and they should bring warm and waterproof clothing and a kind weather attitude.”
Ruskin said the stadium ramps and other walkways would be cleared. Two dozen or more salamander heaters — tubular high-heat machines — were blasting warmth at the underside of the stands Friday afternoon.
Officials considered washing down the stands with the stadium’s fire protection hoses to try to clear the seats, said one work crew member. However, they had not done so by late Friday afternoon.
The university tried without success to use inmates from the Centre County Correctional Institution to clear the stadium. But the 10 to 15 inmates who might have done such work were already booked Friday and, in any event, there wouldn’t have been enough lead time to process insurance paperwork and the like, county officials said.
University janitors who normally work elsewhere on campus were pressed into duty for much of the day to clear snow from the stadium’s tarped playing field. A phalanx of janitors 10 or so abreast trudged back and forth across the field, using push brooms to move the snow to the sidelines. Payloaders and dump trucks took it from there.
Ruskin said 200 janitors were scheduled to work a mandatory double shift Friday, returning for a second 8-hour shift after completing the first. To light the night shifts, a dozen or more Ingersoll-Rand construction light towers were trucked to the stadium Friday afternoon.
http://www.centredaily.com/news/breaking_news/story/1571743.html
