VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Inside snow removal at one of the snowiest universities in the country.
Andrew Hood: The ringing of the Crouse bell tower represents the passage of time. So too, does the softly falling snow. And as the year closes, winter weather is just beginning. Ralph D’Agostino is a grounds technician at Syracuse University.
Ralph D’Agostino: In the past couple years we haven’t had the snow that we normally get but lake effect snow is a funny thing, Depending on how the winds blow you might get nothing and two miles to the south of here or to the north, they could be getting pounded, so we just have to be ready for everything. The removal process has to be swift because we know more is coming.
Hood: For him that means a shovel, a broom and a very long workday.
D’Agostino: It all depends, it might be just an eight-hour shift to get things cleaned up and it could be a 14 or 15-hour shift. We basically have crews here almost around the clock.
Hood: Not everyone is excited about the changing seasons. Chief among them; international student Javier Berczely.
Javier Berczely: I’m from Spain, I live in Madrid, so we don’t really get much snow. We don’t get any snow actually. I’m a junior so I’ve grown resistant to the snow but I still don’t like it.
Hood: To D’Agostino it’s what makes Syracuse home.
D’Agostino: This is what Syracuse is all about. When I was a kid, we used to get anywhere from 125 to 150 inches of snow per year. But you can never be geared up for an old-fashioned winter.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News– The ringing of the Crouse College bell tower represents the passage of time. So too, does the softly falling snow. And as the year closes, winter weather is just beginning.
Ralph D’Agostino is a grounds technician at Syracuse University.
“In the past couple years, we haven’t had the snow that we normally get but lake effect snow is a funny thing,” D’Agostino said. “Depending on how the winds blow, you might get nothing and two miles to the south of here or to the north, they could be getting pounded, so we just have to be ready for everything.”
D’Agostino said the removal process has to be swift because “we know more is coming.” For him that means a shovel, a broom and a very long workday.
“It all depends, it might be just an eight-hour shift to get things cleaned up and it could be a 14 or 15-hour shift. We basically have crews here almost around the clock.”
Not everyone is excited about the changing seasons. Among them is international student Javier Berczely.
“I’m from Spain, I live in Madrid, so we don’t really get much snow,” said Berczely. “We don’t get any snow actually. I’m a junior, so I’ve grown resistant to the snow. But I still don’t like it.”
To D’Agostino, it’s what makes Syracuse home.
“This is what Syracuse is all about,” D’Agostino said. “When I was a kid, we used to get anywhere from 125 to 150 inches of snow per year.” D’Agostino is a little disappointed but said one can never be geared up for an old-fashioned winter.