Campus utilities failed brie64258;y

The first month back at school usually brings some unexpected changes, but a temporary loss of easy access to both food and water was an exceptional surprise.This past week, both Wilson Commons and campus water facilities suffered temporary facility setbacks when, in two unrelated events, the registers and computers in the Pit of Wilson Commons suddenly lost power, and Monroe County accidentally shut off the water lines that fed to the campus. During primetime lunch hour at Wilson Commons on Thursday, register lines were backed up as employees tried to mitigate the problem. “All I know is that I was working the register and then bam, computers went off,” Pit Supervisor for ARAMARK Ramona Grey said. “It wasn’t our fault but it was very stressful to deal with. We had to take down everyone’s name, phone and ID number, and we are going to contact people if their information doesn’t go through.”The power failure affected the computer and internet connections in the offices as well as the registers at the Pit, the C3 Store and the Common Ground Caf. Junior coffee shop employee Sara Wieseneck said the power failure required some organizational skills that she was not prepared to perform. “[The power failure] made working a whole lot harder and, taking down everyone’s information, I felt more like a secretary than the normal coffee shop guru I feel that I am. It happened at a time when people were in the lull of their afternoon and needed caffeine, so many people wanted coffee and there was a long line of impatient people,” she said.Wilson Commons Food Service Director Mike Lobene, who helped employees organize a system to retrieve information from students, said that the power failure will likely cause ARAMARK to lose a significant amount of money from the day’s profits.”I am not sure what happened to the system,” Lobene said. “We were told it was a network problem in Wilson Commons only. It was very frustrating though.” In addition to a loss of power in Wilson Commons, Monroe County surprised students when water lines were accidentally shut off on Sunday, affecting the entire university, including the Medical Center and Monroe Community Hospital, according to UR Central Utilities Manager Dave Weed. “Basically, Monroe County was doing maintenance on a main water line on East Henrietta Road. They had to shut down our facility here, but they did it with the expectation that the lines feeding from the other direction could feed the load. We were short on water for a period of time, until they realized that there wasn’t enough to cover the area,” Weed explained. “It should only be a one-time event, as we have been in contact with the city to coordinate their maintenance schedule with ours.”Junior Cristin Murray, who was affected by both incidents, said she was confused by the series of facility problems, but holds no grudges against the school.”Losing water and power was definitely an annoyance, but at least they got it under control pretty quickly,” she said.Shore can be reached at rshore@campustimes.org.