About the Author: Michael Katzenmoyer is the director of facilities and maintenance at the Masonic Village at Elizabethtown.
It is unbelievable that five months have now passed by in 2015. Many things have changed since I started my career here at Elizabethtown this past January. I no longer feel like the new guy on our Team, the snow is gone and the flowers are in bloom, I can find almost all of the buildings on campus, but most importantly, I know that I have found a new home here at Masonic Village.
I know that my time here has been short, but I’m already looking to formulate my vision of what the maintenance program will look like for years to come. First, let me begin with a brief explanation of who the maintenance team is. The facility maintenance team functions in three separate but interconnected groups: Retirement Living, Health Care & Utility and Buildings & Grounds.
Retirement Living Maintenance
Two teams make up retirement living maintenance. The work order team responds to the daily work requests that come to the maintenance department from residents and staff. The turnover team works to renovate residential living areas as they become available, assuring that our new residents are moving into the highest quality living areas that we can provide.
Health Care & Utility Maintenance
Three teams make up health care and utility maintenance. The health care work order team responds to the daily work requests that come to the maintenance department specifically for the Masonic Health Care Center. The utility team maintains all mechanical infrastructures on campus such as: boilers, large air conditioning units, electrical distribution and sprinkler systems. Finally, the water team operates and maintains our water plant, underground water mains and fire hydrants.
Buildings & Grounds Maintenance
Three teams also make up the “B&G” team. The carpentry team not only creates beautiful cabinetry, they provide the maintenance repairs for all of our employee rental properties and respond to work orders not related to retirement living or heath care. The general maintenance team addresses all of the campus-wide maintenance on roads, roofs, windows and other building systems. Finally, the fleet maintenance team maintains the vehicles and equipment at the Elizabethtown campus and facilitates vehicle purchases state-wide.
What This Year Has in Store
The facility maintenance team has a full slate of projects planned for this year. The upgrade to the heating and cooling system in James Buchanan is our premier project in the works for 2015. This project will allow both heating and cooling operation all year, eliminating the need to switch over during spring and fall seasons. Other projects planned for this year include, seal-coating streets, sewer line upgrades, gazebo replacements, adding additional walking paths, elevator upgrades, street and walking light improvements, rain gutter replacements, several stone wall re-pointing projects and replacing the roof on the Culinary Arts Center, just to name a few.
Another giant step for the maintenance department is the roll-out of our new work order management system, called Worxhub. This new computer-based system launched April 1 and will assist maintenance, landscaping, housekeeping and communications to record, track, analyze and report out on all work requests received by each team.
Looking to the Future
I have always held the belief that in order to plan for the future you need to understand the past. The maintenance program here at Elizabethtown has a rich 105 year history. We have seen many changes throughout these years, not just by the increased number of beautiful buildings we currently maintain but also with the technological advances of the maintenance systems here on campus.
Until 2001, we operated three hand-fed coal-fired boilers on campus. Now, we have three high-efficient gas-fired boilers with six micro turbines providing heat to a large portion of our buildings. In 1912, we operated one kitchen, now we operate 20. Our water system originally was served with an open air reservoir. Now, we maintain a 500,000 gallon water tank and a one megawatt solar field on campus, built in 2010. These are just a few of the technological advances that have taken place over the years.
Now it’s time to look toward developing the future of the Facility Maintenance Department. As a new director, I come to Masonic Village with a fresh set of open eyes, a vision for the future and the desire to implement improvements in order to transform the maintenance program into a highly successful and innovative program. In order to accomplish this, I believe that communication is the cornerstone in creating that success.
Hence we have started implementing new strategies to improve our communication methods, internally among the maintenance team, among other departments on campus and also, most importantly, with our residents. These communication improvements will continue to expand with our new Worxhub work order system. We will collect data to monitor our response times, analyze our work load by trade or craft and make the necessary data driven adjustments on where we can best focus our efforts.
I am so excited to see what the future has in store for the Village and for the Facility Maintenance Department. We can now set the stage for the next 100 years.
