June/July 2020

Spring 2020 has brought changes to everyone’s life, and our HEQ & LCON teams are no exception. While minding safety and health concerns, we have been hard at work designing, installing and repairing landscapes and hardscapes on campus. LCON (Landscape Construction) has hired a new Landscape Supervisor (Glen Conrad ’91) to direct construction and installation operations and provide design/maintenance input. LCON has created an in-house Irrigation Team, moving one of our SSC Irrigation Leads over to LCON as Irrigation Supervisor (Luis Guardado-Rivera ’11). The final new addition is adding Landscape Designer/Planner (Shannon Valkovich ‘20) to our Project Management Team, to help with output and review of plans and estimates.

HEQ (Heavy Equipment) has been pouring concrete on Deferred Maintenance projects where sidewalks need to be repaired or replaced.  A large area has already been replaced by Evans Library with more scheduled this summer.  We are also working on a new parking lot and sidewalk where the Old State Chemistry Building was. The building has been removed but historic pieces have been preserved and are being designed into a landscape project.

LCON has been busy with Deferred Maintenance projects.  The Purchasing and Stores building is currently getting an irrigation and turf renovation, as well as a front planting bed makeover and irrigation conversion.  The raised beds at Mechanical Engineering have gotten a landscape makeover, as have several areas along Military Walk.  LCON continues to work on tree restoration and replacements along New Main, including drainage solutions that will help the health of the trees. 

Our Project Management Team is overseeing a couple of large projects performed by subcontractors. Two more turf panel renovations at Reed Arena have just been completed, and a LARGE turf renovation has started along George Bush Drive between Bizzell and The Music Activities Center.  They are also orchestrating some detailed, but smaller projects that are dear to most Aggies hearts.  One project was the relocation of Ranger’s grave (Earl Rudders dog) to a new resting location beside the Earl Rudder statue. A second is the creation of a small memorial plaza at the edge of Haney Drill Field, to honor Joe T. Haney and the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band. Finally, a student driven project at the Bonfire Memorial has been completed, allowing for the addition of 39 new trees on the perimeter of the Bonfire Memorial site.  These trees are intended to act as a buffer, and help preserve the solitude of Bonfire, as the area around it starts to develop and fill with other buildings.  

Despite these strange times of uncertainty, our team is grateful to continue working and be a part of projects that will improve the campus for years to come.  While it is sometimes nice, and productive, not to have the students and faculty to contend with, we are looking forward to the time when they come back and we can return to some sense of normality.   Whatever that is!

submitted by Mike Teal, PLA, Grounds Manager HEQ/LCON  and Shannon Valkovich, Landscape Designer

The horticulture and the arboriculture department collaborated together during the spring break period at Texas A&M University to provide the MSC landscape with maintenance that will extend the life of the trees around the MSC and Rudder buildings.  Before the project took place, we could see the trees needed: dead wood cut out, tree rings expanded, and their roots to be air spaded. 

Cutting dead wood out of tree are important for their health because we are removing places of the tree that are dead and are decaying.  If there are places on trees that are dead and decaying, it’s vital to remove because it opens the opportunity for disease and pests to enter the tree.  Also, removing dead wood open the opportunity for the tree to send nutrients and focus on the living tissue that the tree has.  When we cut dead wood, we either climb the trees or we use our bucket truck to weave through the canopy of the tree.

Expanding tree rings will improve tree health because we are creating open space for the tree feeder roots.  The feeder roots of a tree aren’t above the ground of course, but they can be anywhere in a 24 to 36 inch zone right beneath the surface of the ground.

Generally, the feeder roots extend just past the tree canopy and the canopy is the term used to describe the top portion of the tree.  Tree rings are commonly added around the base of trees.  Some people might think that it is just for looks but the real reason is so that there is nothing growing throughout the canopy of the tree and mulch is just used to cover bare soil to make is look nice and the mulch also decomposes and adds nutrients.  One major example for the use of a tree ring is so that mowers don’t have to mow and drive over the top of the feeder roots of a tree.  Driving over the feeder roots of any tree will decline the health of trees. Another reason is for us to be able to provide maintenance to the tree roots without damaging grass or landscape.  Expanding tree rings around the MSC was beneficial for tree health but it was also much work for us.  We wanted to cut out the rings cleanly by using a sod cutter and we cut enough sod out around each tree.  This process of cutting sod was the most time consuming of all the factors that went into our project for tree health.

Lastly, we air spaded the soil around the feeder roots of the tree.  The overall purpose of air spading tree root is to aerate the soil and to relieve compaction.  Air spading tree roots is a common practice in arboriculture in areas like Brazos County due to the soil type that we have, which is primarily clay and sandy loam.  The process of air spading is messy because we are blowing compressed air into the ground and creating trenches and we air spade throughout the canopy of the tree and we also add organics in the process to add nutrients to the soil.

Texas A&M University is the largest higher education institution in Texas, not only in size, but in geographical area. At well over five thousand acres, the campus is home to some of the largest and most beautiful floral displays of any campus nationwide. This is evident in various locations such as George W Bush Library, Military Walk, and Leach Teaching Gardens. As memorable as these are, there are some points of botanical splendor that have unfortunately been overlooked. These hidden gems are the rooftop gardens growing on top of the Zachry and Mitchell buildings.

The Hewlett-Packard sponsored “Tech Deck”, located on the fourth floor of the Zachry Engineering Building is the newest and most spacious of our two highlighted gardens. It has four incredibly large planters boasting native trees such as our fragrant Texas mountain laurel. Huge plantings of lantana, blue mist flower, confederate jasmine, and rock rose line the perimeter of the garden. In addition to these vibrant displays of color, long rows of muhlenbergia and adiago maiden grass give beautiful plumes and color changing foliage throughout the fall. All selections were planted with their hardiness and long bloom times in mind. The scenic location is a perfect quiet place for a cup of coffee, and well equipped to accommodate studying students.

The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Butterfly Gardens, located on the third floor of the Mitchell Physics Building, houses a plethora of color and textures. With the inclusion of Texas persimmon, autumn sage, and butterfly weed, the native plants of the garden host and provide nectar for the butterflies that migrate through, while the passionflower and spicebush host caterpillars. Gulf fritillary, monarch, and giant swallowtail are just a few of the butterflies that make their way through the College Station area. While here, they have a large selection of plants to pupate and feed on. This place is a beautiful sanctuary to an amazing group of creatures.

submitted by Carla Wiseniske and Shannon FitzGerald

SSC Facilities is happy to welcome Kyle Duffy as the Technology team’s newest member.

Kyle will be the Supervisor of the Technology team and the Systems Administrator.  His position oversees the setup and maintenance of SSC’s network and server infrastructure, related security, and all the services offered by our awesome Help Desk team.

Kyle’s experience includes positions in the U.S. Army. 

His computer and radio expertise was put on display during the deployment with the 173rd Airborne Unit to Syria.  After the Army, Kyle served as the sole I.T. guy for two 4 star hotels: The Waves resort in Corpus Christi, and the Texas A&M Hotel and Conference Center located on the TAMU campus.

Kyle continues to further his education in technology, and due to the Covid19 pandemic, his fiancée remains ‘stuck’ in Oregon until the state allows non-essential flights.

I encourage everyone to join SSC in the welcoming of Kyle Duffy as the SSC College Station, Systems Administrator!

Howdy! My name is Alondra Rosas.

I am a senior at Texas A&M University, majoring in Human Resource Development and minoring in Business. On campus I am involved in four different organizations where I hold leadership positions in two and work as a research assistant for the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center. When I’m not doing school related activities, I enjoy cooking, painting and spending time with my Devon rex kitten, Leo. 

After graduation, I plan on working for a few years before coming back and acquiring my Masters in Human Resource Management at May’s Business School. I’m very excited about this opportunity and look forward to acquiring knowledge about HR during my time here as the HR intern.

CUSTODIAL NEW ASSOCIATES

Cynthia Benford Maryuri Castellon Jasmine Clark Jennifer Davis Dedrick Dennis Reyna Duran Douglas Eastep Stephanie Espinoza Elizabeth Flint Lawyer Foster Camron Guevara Jonathan Henderson Dionne Hogan Jermika Holland Kadeadrea Holle Lanea Holle Darwin Johnson Lynell Johnson Elexus Johnson

Chatos Kims Sierra Laster Jakelin Lerma Robert Long Gabriel Lopez Troynisha Love Ashia Maxwell Sonea Medina Heather McCalister Jaslyn Mooring Angelica Roman Anahi Salazar Hazael Salazar Latoya Sandle Lori Sims Edward Smith Amy Tapia Raiden Torres Zantraisa Wiley

GROUNDS NEW ASSOCIATES

Isaac Almaguer Richard Andrade Fernando Arellano Alexander Baker Matthew Bowman Brock Breed Jared Crockett Charles Crume Shannon FitzGerald Ronaldo Herrera Parker Knight Brent Levans Joshua Lipscomb Ernestor Pena Douglas Roth Earl Smith Hunterdon Watts

MAINTENANCE NEW ASSOCIATES

Michael Amador Vernon Brunker Kyle Duffy Curtis Finch Preston Futrell Jordan Gray Christopher Hyvl Sonny Lopez Keith Nichols Alondra Rosas Rebecca Shaver Cory Simmons Randal Stadler Julia Tisch

Custodial

Raqulina Cabrera

Cynthia Fagan

Abigail Garcia

Dora Garza

Trina Harrison

Elisha Hawkins

Perla Hernandez

Jessica Prado

Jessie Resendez III

Nichol Torres

EDCS Quarterly

Lisa Gray

Grounds

Stephanie Binger

Treson Dyess

Luis Guardado-Rivera

Lee Hardin

Cameron Kastelein

Susan Stansbery

Maintenance

Adam Laws

Guadalupe (Lupe) Garcia