Burst Pipe Cuts Off Hot Water to Kelly, Roosevelt Quads

By Matthew Weinberger

Campus maintenance has cut off hot water and steam to Kelly Dining Center, Kelly Quad, and Roosevelt Quad in order to fix a leaking pipe under Roosevelt Drive, a service interruption notice circulated today to faculty said.

These repairs will not finish “until [Friday],” Lisa Ospitale, director of marketing for Campus Dining Services, said. The notification itself lists the completion of the repairs as “TFL,” or “’til further notice.”

These repairs have blocked anyone from going down Roosevelt Drive, and are making people enter the Quad through what is normally the exit, making these narrow roads two-way streets for the duration. A steaming pothole is clearly visible from the sidewalk connecting Circle Road to the Roosevelt parking lot.

At 12:30 p.m. today, the Campus Dining website posted a notice about the outage, but changed it at 2:45 p.m. to amend it to say “for safety reasons, we may (emphasis theirs) be serving a modified menu.” However, according to Ospitale, students have hardly noticed a change.

“We’ve been able to keep things running,” she said.

In such a situation, Campus Dining has certain priorities, according to Angela Agnello, director of marketing and communications for the Faculty Student Association. The first is to keep hot food hot. The second is to serve cold food cold. The third, and last, is to provide enough hot water for sanitation.

To that last end, the Faculty Student Association, working in conjunction with Campus Dining Services, was able to hire a truck to take dirty dishes to Roth Food Court before Kelly Dining’s last supply of hot water ran out.

“After they’re washed, they’re taken back to Kelly to be used once again,” Ospitale said.

As far as making sure the employees at Kelly Dining Center remain hygienic, they’ve brought in electric-powered sinks that heat up 12-gallon tanks of water, allowing for chefs and servers to keep their hands clean.

The only changes to normal service at Kelly Dining Center will be the replacement of the Pasta Sauté dinner at the Seasons counter tonight with the breakfast menu, and the replacement of plastic trays with cardboard ones.

“That’s news to me,” an assistant to Gail Engel, food service director for Kelly Dining Center, said when asked about the notice on the Campus Dining website.

Representatives from the physical plant could not be reached for comment.

Correction: Gail Engel was wrongly quoted as saying something that her assistant said, instead.