The Maintenance Shop: FMD's Generalists

Team ready at any time, any place to solve a maintenance problem

By Geoffrey Mock

Friday, November 3, 2006

Durham, NC -- In an age of specialists, Roosevelt Hall and his co-workers of the General Maintenance Shop Team are the equivalent of the old-time physicians who make house calls.

When it comes to campus repairs, “we are the answer to the question, “Who are you going to call?” Hall said. “I know it’s popular to be a specialist these days, but we are the generalists who will fix anything.”

Winners of the 2006 Teamwork Award, the General Maintenance Shop, part of Duke Facilities Management and Development, are prepared to take on any duty from removal of snakes from a building to fixing Page Auditorium toilets before intermission hits.

Jack Burgess, FMD assistant director for maintenance services, said there’s a pride on the team of 10 mechanics that it can fix just about anything at any hour of the day.

“No matter what time – normal working hours, midnight or at 6 a.m., the shop has the university covered,” Burgess said. “That means maintaining the beautiful Gothic buildings and the most recent high-tech buildings. That covers millions of square footage of buildings, buildings with more than $1 billion of replacement value with millions of dollars of research being performed. The shop is looking after these buildings, ready to respond to floods, power outages, elevator entrapments and other emergencies.”

The shop responded to more than 10,000 service calls last year. Burgess said 70 percent of the calls were completed within a 24 hour period.

For the shop’s campus customers, the teamwork makes a difference.

“The DukeCard office and the maintenance shop are kindred spirits,” said Roland Gettliffe of the DukeCard office. “None of our customers ever seem to remember the last 100 times that their DukeCard opened the door to their building or the last 100 times that their toilet flushed successfully. All they know is that ‘it’s not working now.’ In their mind, this is the biggest problem at Duke and needs to be fixed now.”

Burgess said the shop prides itself not just on fixing problems, but on communication. Duke customers praised the office for letting them know when the office could get to the job and providing regular updates during the work.

The team works in all weather conditions – often the worse the weather, the greater the need for its services. “The mechanics work together through snow and ice storms, hurricanes and floods,” said Kenneth Bridges, shop supervisor. “Each team member is knowledgeable in his trade and dedicated as a team to maintain and protect university buildings.”