Royal Purple

Issue date: 2/13/08 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Alison Wisneski A university posted sign outside the Drumlin parking lot advises students to remove their cars

This winter has been, plain and simple, unlike any other in recent memory. As of Sunday night, Channell3000.com reported the total depth of snow across southern Wisconsin as approximately 10-12 inches; most of it fell within a matter of a few days.

The snowfall has most students cursing everyone from Mother Nature to the people plowing the streets and parking lots, but is it justified? The current weather situation certainly isn't of a quality that would normally harbor smiles and high fives but rather varying intensity of expletives and chattering of teeth. However, students should understand that the city and the university are out there doing their best, and their damning of the men and women who are trying to make life in this city and on this campus continue is petty and a cop out.

Comedian Lewis Black put living in cold weather very simply and accurately when he said, "You live in a cold that human beings aren't supposed to live in." Some days that is exactly how Wisconsin weather feels: unlivable. Wisconsinites are faced with frigid winter after frigid winter, but this year takes the cake.

This winter will go down as one of the coldest, whitest winters in Wisconsin history.

The constant barrage of snow and cold has forced many members of the university and city community to alter their way of life.

Some days you just can't leave your house, your car may not start and the roads are too dangerous to traverse.

Some people, however, have to push the snow from their doorsteps, fire up their vehicles and head out to bring this city as close to normal as humanly possible.

UW-Whitewater Grounds Supervisor Steve Bertagnolli believes students don't fully understand the work the grounds crew does.

"Student don't understand the logistics or know what is going on," Bertagnolli said. "We are darn good at what we do."

Bertagnolli said the job is not as simple as some students may think it is. "It's a mentally and physically exhausting experience every time out.

We're not like a city crew that plows streets or a highway crew that drives miles straight ahead and turns twice. We're in parking lots, going in reverse as much as we are going forward."

Continued...

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