Fulltimers return

Mandatory meeting: SATURDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER, is a MANDATORY meeting for all department employees. Those who have a conflict and cannot attend must contact Erin. Time and location TBA.

Friday, 21 August, we'll have a POTLUCK and BBQ, celebrating the return of all our friends and fellow employees, and concluding a very busy and profitable summer. Bring what you can and maybe a buck or two to help pay for the BBQ essentials, and have a grand time! We'll be setting up about 11:30 am Friday.

Point Of Our Policy: Clean the washbay after washing any of our vehicles. If you don't have the time to rinse out the floor and put all equipment back after washing a vehicle, then schedule the wash for another time. Under no circumstances should we leave the washbay dirty.

Van driver certification training will be taking place during all of next week (first week of school) as well as 31 August and 01 September. This means the south portion of the Dome parking lot will be coned off during that time. Please respect those who will be van training and leave them plenty of room to maneuver around that parking lot.

Those van drivers working for MCT who do not yet have a University van certification card will be expected to complete the course themselves as soon as possible. You can sign up for that class by going online to nau dot edu, looking up Transportation Services Center, and clicking on "Van Training."

Major detour: A major detour is coming to Route 2 when San Francisco will be completely closed off to traffic at the Rec Center beginning 14 September and extending for the next several weeks. Transit plans regarding Route 2 buses and Route 2 Express Vans will be discussed soon.

We have been practicing the new Staging departure scheme under 50's direction the past few days. More drills will be taking place with the new hires and returning FTEs this week.

Time cards are due Thursday, 20 August, no later than 10:00 am.

If you have any items for The Slack Adjuster, please submit them to 61.

We finally got the last major striping and curb painting job finished last Friday. Tinsley pullout got the white exclusion line painted after the resurfacing of Knoles adjacent to Tinsley Hall was completed. The final line at Tinsley is dedicated to 77, who loved painting and really misses it.

This offset driveway entrance will be the Communications bus stop for our transit when all the construction is done with the Comm building extension.

In driver news, we've had two more former bus drivers tie the knot. Drivers formerly known as 79C and 84 (was it??) were married over the past weekend. Pictures to come.

In other news, 67 was injured while unicycling last Friday. Luckily, the injury was to her left foot, so she still hasta drive haha. Close one, 67.

Also, current driver and newlywed 84 (pictured below) had surgery to remove some malignancies on his forehead. He is doing fine, and boasted of receiving (how many was it now?) something like 26 stitches during the operation. Ahh, war wounds!

All of our returning summer workers and drivers and our newly returning FTEs, plus the new hires, met with our department manager Erin on Monday. She welcomed us all back and encouraged us to emphasize good customer service as we go about our routes. Thanks for stopping by, Erin!

Finally, driver 96 made a chilling discovery when a massively monster beetle decided to take a hike on him on Monday.

Panicking slightly, he quickly decided to remain calm and to provide the best customer service possible, recalling what our department leader had encouraged us to do earlier this morning.

Nevertheless, 83 found the challenging situation for our slighly panicking driver highly amusing.

In the end, 96 realized it was nearing lunch time, and decided to dispatch the critter in Rambo fashion.

A little more of this

83 seems to have a thing for Route 1.

84 and 78 began the process of testing and cleaning the wheelchair lifts.

98 and 91 unearthed, just outside the barn, the decomposed clothes our soon-to-be corpsed skeletons will wear for their moment in the ... um, full moon. (You had to be there.)

Mirror dots were painted to aid drivers in setting mirrors properly. Then the wet paint had to dry. The job of guarding the wet paint from errant community drivers, who seemed to think this was some kind of serendipitous slalom, fell to 99, 91 and farther back 78.78 guarded the other end of the roadway as well.

91 works a tough technical portion of VAST (the Van Advanced Skillz Trail).

Then 84 takes a go at it.

Finally, we had a real nice surprise visit from old-timer 65, her sister and friend. Thanks for stopping by! It was great to see and meet you!

For Monday

PAINTING OF THE OFFICE

Hopefully, on Monday morning the paint crew from Capital Assets will come in and begin painting the lounge and office. The remaining furniture will have to be removed before that. Conducting business during this time will be difficult at best, please be patient. After the first coat of paint is finished, tile will be laid, then a final touch-up of paint will be completed. When after all that dries (usually in a day) we will begin putting everything back.

OUR PAINT CREW
For those who will be on one of our paint groups, we will begin collecting supplies and will probably start our first job painting the yellow poles on Monday or Tuesday. Dress appropriately: Your clothes and shoes will act like a paint magnet!

BUS LANE SOON!
Soon we will have a dedicated, Bus Rapid Transit bus lane, our first for the campus at large.

At an unspecified date in the not-too-distant future, Pine Knoll drive going westbound between the Forestry driveway and almost up to McConnell drive will be re-striped in order to set aside a bus lane for MCT.

Late last April, Grounds installed signage that will inform vehicle operators of the prohibition of operating in the lane on the north side of the street. This north-side lane will permit occupation only by buses and bicycles; all other traffic (including MCT vans and office cars) will travel westbound in the center lane. The exception will be for vehicles traveling west along Pine Knoll that will be making an immediate right turn into Huffer lane where Mountain Line bus barn is located. It will be important for our drivers operating in the bus lane there to watch carefully for vehicles turning right into Huffer, as well as bicycles using the bus lane.

When the bus-lane project is completed, it will help MCT buses avoid the heavy traffic that occurs during class changes there and will cut three or more minutes from our running times.

CDL TRAINING
CDL training will continue this week, including pre-trip, engine, and undercarriage. If you will be learning the undercarriage systems, please wear grubby clothes and inform the trainer if you would like a hair cover and/or eye goggles (recommended).
VAN TRAINING
Van training is also to continue once we get 123 back from the shop. If you haven't done the Extreme Skillz for Van training yet, we'll set something up soon. Relax. It's easy.
OUR FIRST BBQ
Thanks to everyone for a very nice outdoor bbq last Friday. If you have any ideas for future bbqs on Fridays, let us know.

A POINT OF OUR POLICY
Just to remind all our MCT drivers, regardless of university vehicle, that talking or texting on a cellphone is prohibited. Boston's WCVB-TV 5 reports that a trolley operator who was texting his girlfriend last week did not see another trolley stopped in front of him and crashed, injuring 46 people. Let's not make that horrible mistake.

NEW ENTRANCE
A new entrance is being constructed on Knoles not more than 20 feet north of the University Union bus stop. It will allow vehicles earlier access into the parking lot between Cline Library and the Field House. Once it is open, Route 1 drivers will need to exercise caution for vehicles slowing to turn right into the lot. The driveway into the lot will be one-way eastbound only. This should ease up a significant amount of traffic snarling that normally occurs during class changes at the Library stop sign, and help improve the timeliness of our service a bit.

THANKS
... to everyone for doing such a great job the first week of summer! And don't hesitate to make use of the links on this page, or to submit your own ideas for this Slack Adjuster blog.