Custodial Services Curtailed

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 16, 2012) — The University of Kentucky Facilities Management team has developed several money-saving initiatives to meet its two-year $3.47 million budget reduction, including a cutback in the level of custodial service in certain areas of the university.

“These reductions have forced some tough decisions to be made,” said Bob Wiseman, vice president for facilities management.

By reducing the level of service in selected areas, the university will realize approximately $650,000 per year in cost reductions.  The affected areas include general offices, corridors, classrooms and labs, and stairwells.  Below is a summary of the changes:

General Offices

•       Reduce trash collection frequency from two times per week to weekly.

•       Reduce dust and spot cleaning frequency from weekly to every other week.

•       Reduce full vacuum wall-to-wall frequency from weekly to every other week. Add a new task: Vacuum traffic lanes every other week.

•       Reduce damp mop frequency from weekly to every other week. Add a new task: Spot mop visible spots and soil every other week”

Corridors

•       Reduce wide-aisle vacuum frequency from two times per week to weekly. Increase spot vacuum frequency from three times per week) to four times per week.

•       Reduce auto scrub or damp mop frequency from two times per week to weekly but increase spot mop visible soil, dust and debris frequency from three times per week to four times per week.

•       Instead of stripping and refinishing all floors yearly, strip and refinish 50 percent of the floors yearly and add a new task: Scrub and recoat 50 percent of floors yearly.

Classrooms / Labs

•       Instead of stripping and refinishing all floors yearly, strip and refinish 50 percent of the floors yearly and add a new task: Scrub and recoat 50 percent of floors yearly.

Stairwells

•       Reduce fully clean stairwells frequency from weekly to every other week. Increase police stairwells frequency from four times per week to nine times every two weeks.

"Many of UK’s peer institutions are faced with similar budget cuts and have already implemented similar or more drastic cleaning program reductions.  UK elected to work with a custodial consulting firm to redesign its cleaning specification in the most responsible and appropriate manner, given the budget constraints.  The program modifications shown above achieve the necessary cost savings without sacrificing occupants’ health or the overall appearance level of the university,” Wiseman said. 

For a complete listing of the newly adopted cleaning specifications broken down by area type, visit http://www.ppd.uky.edu/custodial/ for campus buildings and http://ppdmc.uky.edu/CustodialServices.aspx for Medical Center buildings.  Click on the link titled “Physical Plant Master Plan – Part A”

“Facilities Management is committed to providing outstanding service and support to all of our customers and clients.  To help meet this commitment we have created a new position - quality assurance inspector, whose primary focus will be ensuring that we are meeting the newly adopted cleaning specifications.  Quality audits for all buildings will be performed on an ongoing basis according to a pre-established schedule.  We will also utilize third-party inspections to calibrate and verify our internal inspection efforts,” said Ed McClure, director of the Medical Center physical plant.

“We appreciate everyone’s cooperation as we transition to the modified cleaning program.  As always we will be striving to meet and exceed the university’s custodial quality needs and expectations. If anyone has any questions regarding the new cleaning specification, level of service, or any other issue, please start with the appropriate supervisor or superintendent. The supervisor and superintendent for each building can be located on the website as well,” said Kevin Kreide, director of campus physical plant.