Facilities Management Team Receives Manuel Carballo Governor's Award for Excellence in Public Service
The Operations and Services managerial team oversees maintenance of UMass Lowell's 5 million square feet of buildings and grounds.
11/15/2022
By Ed Brennen
Part of the statewide Performance Recognition Program, the Carballo Award is given annually to 10 employees or groups of employees who exemplify the highest standards of public service. Named in honor of the late Secretary of Human Services, the honorees are selected from more than 42,000 state employees.
Led by Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Management & Planning Jean Robinson and Executive Director of Operations and Services Terrence McCarthy, the Operations and Services team provides a dozen critical campus services — everything from electrical, plumbing and HVAC to housekeeping, grounds and athletics field maintenance, snow removal and energy management.
“I want to thank the dedicated and professional Operations and Services leadership team and all the O&S staff for the critical work they do every day to keep our campus safe, clean and running efficiently and sustainably so our students, faculty and staff can thrive,” says Chancellor Julie Chen.
Image by Ed Brennen
Carpentry is one of the dozen teams managed by Operations and Services, which has been recognized with the commonwealth's Manuel Carballo Governor's Award for Excellence in Public Service.
The Operations and Services team, which responds to an average of 15,000 work requests each year, helps improve efficiency of building systems while reducing operating costs — as well as the campus’s carbon footprint.
The Operations and Services managers include: Robert Greaney (mechanical services), Bruce Cayer (operations), Chris Golden (carpentry and lock shop), Daniel Abrahamson (energy), Jim Rossi (power plant), James Santangelo (building energy management systems), Kevin Block (grounds operations), Matthew Smith (power plant) and Nancy Amedee (housekeeping services), as well as Meaghan Healey (associate director of operations and services), Randy Branson (associate director of mechanical, electrical and plumbing operations) and Tim Deignan (operations coordinator).
Some of their recent accomplishments include:
- Overseeing the $23.1 million Accelerated Energy Program with the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to repair, improve and replace 6,000 pieces of mechanical and lighting equipment. This resulted in $1.2 million in annual energy savings, 1.7 million gallons of annual water savings and the avoidance of the equivalent of 9 million pounds of carbon dioxide. It also addressed $10 million in deferred maintenance.
- Deploying over 45,000 building management system control points in all 52 university buildings, resulting in the capability to remotely monitor building systems performance and reduce 1.5 megawatts of peak energy load demand response.
- Assisting Lowell General Hospital staff with converting the Campus Recreation Center into a field hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic — twice.
- Helping make UML one of only six universities in Massachusetts to achieve Tree Campus USA designation by the Arbor Day Foundation.