When trouble hits, the Operations Division responds.
As many of you may remember, the wee hours of last Friday morning brought some bad weather to Lubbock.
Coming up Flint Avenue that morning on the way to campus, it became apparent that some real damage had been done. Limbs and trees were down all over the place, even blocking the southbound lane of Flint right at 19th Street. Traffic lights were out as well.
It wasn't a pretty picture.
On campus, it was clear Texas Tech University hadn't been spared from the storm. There were limbs scattered everywhere and as I approached the Administration building, I came upon a crew out working on a tree that was completely uprooted.
It was a sad sight, for sure.
“Lots of work to do before tomorrow,” I thought to myself, as I strolled on into work.
Come Saturday, like many of you, I was back on campus getting ready to watch our Red Raiders roll over Tarleton State and get the football season headed in the right direction. As a couple of friends and I made our way onto campus, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how good everything looked.
There were a couple of signs of the storm here and there, but for the most part, our campus looked like a bright shining example of what a major university should look like on a gameday.
The tree near the admin building was cut up and gone, the walkways around campus were clear of debris and we were all free to have the good time we were hoping for.
It was like somebody had waved a magic wand and, poof, all the signs of destruction had disappeared.
But there wasn't any magic wand. There was just a group of hard-working people out doing their jobs.
Those people belong largely to the Texas Tech Operations Division Grounds Maintenance Department, and we decided this was as good a time as any to show them a bit of love for the work they do.
These guys and gals were out on campus bright and early Friday morning with chainsaws and woodchippers, dealing with the wet conditions and putting the campus back together, and they were still out working Friday evening when most of us headed home for the weekend as well.
According to Charles Leatherwood, the team was not only here late Friday, they were back at work at 6 a.m. on Saturday.
“I am very proud of the hard work and dedication of our Operation Division Grounds Maintenance Department,” Leatherwood said. “As always, they did a fantastic job and we were ready for the game by noon. I appreciate and thank them for their hard work.”
It's not like Friday was an abnormal day either. Most mornings on the way into work, at least one member of the grounds maintenance team will point his blower in the other direction so I can trod on to the office without being hit by a blast of dirt off the sidewalk.
The Operations Division might be home to the hardest-working people on campus. At the very least they're in the running for that honor.
They're nationally recognized for the wonderful work they do, and every member of the Red Raider community should be proud to have these people on our team.
So, if you wander by a member of the ops team in the next couple of weeks, give them a little nod of gratitude for all the work they do and let them know how much we all appreciate them.
Great job and keep up the good work!
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