PGMS Member Area > PGMS Knowledge Center

By Mike O’Grady CGM, CTP
Illinois State University

Creating a Win-Win Solution for Taxpayers

The grounds’ maintenance industry has always been a trying profession, full of its ups and downs as we deal with customer service, employees, and of course, Mother Nature.

The past couple of years have been a real challenge for all of us in the lawn care and service industry, particularly in higher education. While maintenance budgets have never been where we want them to be, we normally could cover our day-to-day budget expenses and duties, and still complete some of those larger, annual projects. We, along with many others, are finding that the need to be resourceful is imperative to our success. Illinois State University in Normal, IL has seen budget reductions of 15 percent over the past two years. With 80 percent of our annual budget in personnel dollars, this reduction came from both our personel and our operating budgets. These budgets were already lean, and taking reductions further is like trimming the “thicket” with a machete, rather then a pair of pruners. Rather than snipping here and there, we have had to make substantial cuts that hurt the entire maintenance program.

Illinois State University, founded in 1857, was the first public institution of higher education in the state of Illinois and has an enrollment of 20,000 students. The 970-acre campus is located within an urban setting and is maintained by a staff of 18. The Grounds Department consists of a foreman, grounds workers, a landscape gardener, a turf specialist and a certified arborist. Our coordination of maintenance of the campus requires us to continually look for smarter and innovative processes.

With the cutbacks that have taken place over the past two years, we found ourselves needing to streamline ways that our department performs maintenance and find solutions that don’t compromise the integrity of the service that we provide our customers or the aesthetic quality of the campus itself. We began to review our processes and needed to set aside the old adages that “We have always done it this way” and “It works so don’t try and fix it” and develop new strategies.

One of the processes that we reviewed was our application and purchase of hardwood, processed mulch. We had been purchasing hardwood mulch for 15 acres of our 27 acres of chip beds on campus for years. Our annual cost was $14,000-$16,000 a year, and while the beds really looked great after installation, I was always disappointed at how quickly that dark brown of the newly dressed beds faded. A less costly and longer lasting solution needed to be found.

Over the years we have worked closely with Town of Normal staff, meeting regularly to keep each other updated on projects that affect both the Town and the University, and are always looking for opportunities that will benefit both agencies. It was here that we found a solution to our mulching concerns that not only benefited us, but the Town as well.

We had been hauling our landscape brush to the Town of Normal public works department for many years. Normal has a tub grinder used to process landscape waste generated by the Town residents. To increase our recycle efforts and reduce our solid waste stream and cost, we worked out an agreement with the Town. It stated that the Grounds Department would purchase replacement blades for their grinder and they in turn would accept in addition to our landscape waste, other wood materials (doors, desks, dimensional lumber, etc). The waste material was ground and the chips were then given away to the residents to use in home landscape projects. Problems existed though as the town was faced with the disposal of chips during the winter months, (most homeowners are not very interested in landscaping their yards at this time) and budget cutbacks were affecting the University’s hardwood mulch purchases; we had to cut back on the amount of material we were receiving, therefore doing less mulching.

After some research we learned that the tub grinder used by the Town could be outfitted with smaller screens at an expense of $900. These screens would produce a much smaller and finer product that very closely matched the hardwood mulch that we had used in the past. It also had a natural dark color that did not fade over time. While the smaller screens made the grinding process about 25 percent slower, it proved not be a problem because this special grinding is done during the winter months when landscape waste is reduced and the town is not as busy as they are during the summer. Chips are ground, then hauled and stockpiled on campus throughout the winter months and are ready for spring installation.

The solution was a great “win-win” project for both agencies as well as the taxpayers. Illinois State eliminated its cost of purchasing processed hardwood mulch, the dark color lasts much longer, and we have reduced our solid waste stream and costs by using material from decks, chairs and lumber from the campus to mulch our shrubs and trees. It’s also a very environmentally sound solution. The Town of Normal benefits as it now has found an outlet for their landscape waste during the winter months. By working together we have solved problems for both departments bringing to mind another old adage………. “Necessity is the mother of inventions.”

SILVER PARTNERS IN PROFESSIONALISM