In the first installment of a new series on the work done to maintain and improve the campus, Bobby McCully of UMF’s Facilities Management team explains how installation of a second seating wall at the South Street entrance to the Einar A. Olsen Memorial Student Center is coming along.
Story and photos by Marc Glass, July 2019
Got some yard work to do this summer? So does UMF.
Among the legion of Facilities Management staff who steadily work to maintain and improve the campus in the academic off-season is 33-year veteran Bobby McCully of New Sharon. On this Thursday morning, McCully was lugging, cutting, and setting 45 lb. blocks of the architectural concrete product Mini Creta to create the second sitting wall at the South Street entrance to the Einar A. Olsen Memorial Student Center.
McCully sets a block of Mini Creta to test its fit as he lays a course in the second sitting wall outside the Einar A. Olsen Memorial Student Center.
Keenan Farwell, the University’s interim Director of Facilities and a Project Manager for the UMaine System’s Capital Project team, said the wall’s construction is the final piece of the Olsen hardscaping project that was made possible by a gift from former President Kate Foster a year ago. The project’s first phase, completed in summer 2018, included new pavers for the entrance walkway and a handsome two-foot-high Mini Creta seating wall to the left.
After measuring twice, McCully aligns a slab of Mini Creta in the “block breaker” to cut once. The first sitting wall, completed in summer 2018, is in the background.
Farwell said the project beautifies the entrance to one of the most visited buildings on campus and replaces two much lower and decades-old stone retaining walls that were falling apart.
McCully estimated laying up courses of Mini Creta to form the second sitting wall would take him 10 days. As for how many blocks he would wind up setting, he wouldn’t venture a guess.
“I don’t want to count because I don’t want to know. My back can tell me when the job is done,” he said with a laugh. “I just turned 62. Working this job keeps you younger. You gotta love what you’re doing.”
Once he has the slab aligned in the “block breaker,” McCully gives the cutting device’s lever a swift, downward yank.
As he worked, Linda Blodgett, administrative assistant at the University’s Fitness and Recreation Center, happened by and offered her take on the project: “It’s looking good, Bobby.”
McCully didn’t miss a beat: “Thanks, but I’m not coming to your house to do one,” he said with a smile.
Once he’s made sure the fit is right, McCully removes the cut-to-size block and lays down a bead of XTREME Bond on the block below. The weather-resistant masonry adhesive helps keep the pieces of Mini Creta in place.
Later, he confessed that high praise from staff and faculty had sometimes come in an unexpected form.
“Lots of people have said, ‘Do you do any side jobs?’” Asked how he replies, he simply shook his head.
McCully said he’s a relative newcomer to hardscaping and stone work. Farwell, who installed the Mantor Library terrace with the same materials, taught him everything he knows and is, “the real expert.”
“But, evidently,” said McCully, “he has confidence enough in me to do it myself.”
McCully has worked to maintain and improve UMF’s 92-acre campus since 1986. He is the son of the late Robert A. McCully, who held several positions in Facilities Management over his 25 years with the University.