By Aphra Hughes

Hidden behind the cafeteria
is a department most stu-
dents never think about. This
is Facilities, the home of the
people who care for the
University's buildings, and
this week the Director,
Godfrey Medhurst, cele-
brates his fifty-eighth birth-
day.

Godfrey Medhurst was
born in England during World
War Il. He grew up in
Maidstone, where he appren-
ticed as a machinist and mill-
wright, before getting an
Engineering Diploma _ at
Maidstone Technical College.
The diploma is not as high a
level as a degree would be,
and has a more practical ori-
entation. Had he chosen to,
_he could have stayed on for
two more years to become a
Chartered Engineer, but
instead, he moved _ into
design engineering, working
in the automotive sector and
plastics. His employer in
plastics was Reed of
England, who built two pulp
mills in Prince George, which
is what brought him and his
new wife to Prince George in
1969. He worked his way up
at the mill, from mechanical
engineer to maintenance
supervisor and then mainte-
nance superintendent. Mr
Medhurst speaks with affec-
tion of Canfor as "like a fami-
ly", something he needed
when tragedy hit his family.
When his daughter was four
years old and his son two, his
wife died of cancer. There
were some difficult years, but
both his children are now
doing well as adults: his
daughter is a single mother,
taking a BA general here, and
her little daughter is in the
daycare at UNBC, where the
proud grandfather can see
her daily. He also gets to pick
her up on the evenings that
her mother has a late class,
which he describes as a great
way to unwind after work. His
son is currently working in a
restaurant, but Mr Medhurst
has hopes that he will enroll
in university, and yes, he

Out of the Spotlight:

What lies beneath the University

would prefer this one.

Mr Medhurst thinks this is a
good university. He also
thinks a lot of the students.
He describes us as "99%
great kids", although he
would like the other one per-
cent to stop and think. One
of the more prevalent forms
of vandalism is taking signs,
and it costs $270 to replace a
sign identifying a classroom.
It can cost from $2000 to

$3000 to clean up graffiti on
the outside of the buildings.
What this means is that, if
you are stupid enough to
leave graffiti, or to knock
down six signs, you have cost
your fellow students one
whole computer. Think about
it the next time you can't find
anywhere to log on ...

Mr Medhurst has no idea
why, but vandalism seems to
come in spurts. He suggests
moon phases may be
responsible; if you need a
research project for psychol-
ogy, visit Facilities and volun-
teer.

Mr Medhurst came to the
University in 1991, hoping for
a new challenge, and his
main role then was coordinat-
ing construction. Not much
has changed in that respect -
his main role at the moment
is overseeing the building of

the new science centre.
Offices for the forestry lab
and a maintenance facility
will also be going up shortly,
and many more buildings are
to follow. He is also in charge
of Purchasing, Operations
and Maintenance, and Health
and Safety, but can delegate
more in these areas.

Mr Medhurst is especially
pleased with the state of

won compliments from the
RCMP. The campus has
three people on duty in secu-
rity twenty-four hours a day,
seven days a week, and one
of them is always near a
phone. There have been a
few assaults, mostly from

fights breaking out, but as far.

as he knows, no assaults on
women. Generally, he feels
that this campus is safe.
UNBC has had two bomb
threats in its history, only one
of which he would describe
as significant, where they
found a taped-up box with all
the parts of a bomb, except
explosives and a detonator.
Since this is a small universi-
ty, he does warn that he has
to rely on janitors, staff and
students to report problems.
Mr Medhurst is also the per-
son responsible for throwing
you out of your

classroom every October.
That's right, Fire Drill is com-
ing up again. Even Facilities
staff don't Know when in
October, though; the only
people told in advance are
the Fire Department. So far,
our record has been good, as
buildings have always been
cleared in less than five min-
utes.

When the conversation
turns to parking, Mr Medhurst
looks pained. Parking is his
"worst headache", and bicy-
cle parking is no _ better.
Facilities bought two new
bike racks for this September,
at over $800 each, and
expected that to accommo-
date anybody who'd been
having trouble finding space
last year. Whether it's the
bus strike or something else,
he doesn't know, but there
are even more bikes this year
than expected, and because
they can't find spaces, people
are chaining their bikes to the
railing he ordered to be paint-
ed last summer. They are
also chaining them to the
lamp posts, which is just as
bad, because with either rail-
ing or lamp posts you could
chip the paint. Mr Medhurst
says he understands that you
have no choice, but he clear-
ly grieves over the chipped
paint.

He also mourns over peo-
ple taking the shortcut from
University Way to the parking
lot that goes right by the
detention ponds. After four
years of pleading, he has
finally succeeded in getting
funding from Victoria to put in
an illuminated paved side-

‘walk from University Way to

the corner of the parking lot -
construction should start
soon. This is a $75,000 pro-
ject, and he will be pleased to

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have it done, because he
really wants you to keep
away from his ponds.

The detention ponds take
surface water, the way a
storm sewer would, and hold
it back. This results in an out-
flow. of precisely .27 cubic
meters per second down
Shane Creek. The outflow
needs to be _ controlled,
because the water table is
quite high on the hill, and it
doesn't take all that much
rain to send down enough
water to damage a house. -

This actually happened a
few years ago, so the City of
Prince George bought the
house and demolished it, and
we got detention ponds. The
problem with walking near
them is that the plastic mem-
brane lining them isn't very
far under the surface, and
you could easily damage it
just by walking on it. Actually
venturing into the pond is
dangerous as well: they may
not look terribly deep, but
they are quite deep enough
to drown in.

Mr Medhurst has ordered
soil for the David Douglas
Botanical Garden, and
promises a beautiful display
garden, with paths, benches,
trees, and a statue of David
Douglas, if only you will stay
away from the detention
ponds for now.

Godfrey Medhurst likes to
sum up his job by saying that
"when | worked at the pulp
mill, the finished product was
paper: here the finished prod-
uct is students. Students are
what count."

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1479 3rd Ave