The Grounds in Monetary Terms
In general, each of the twelve staff members that are part of the grounds maitenance crew work weeks that average out to around forty hours. They make a bit over $20 per hour, which works out to a little more than $40,000 a year, each. This $480,000 plus cost to the college does not include the additional 35% Mount Holyoke pays in health, welfare, and benefits. This means that in payroll expenses for ground management alone, the college spends at least $648,000.
The 2014 materials budget for grounds management is $147,350. The grounds management staff tries to source as much work as possible internally. However, for some tasks such as the removal of large branches or some contraction jobs, they higher outside companies. Hiring labor or expertise on a temporary basis from outside is much more expensive than utilizing the skills and labor of college employees, so the of the $147,350 budget, an entire $48,000 is allotted to the category for use hiring outside contractors. There is also $41,000 for general supplies, $4,000 for renting pieces of equipment they do not own, and a variety of other smaller categories.
As they make purchases, grounds maitenance tries to spend their money relatively locally. For example, they buy seed lime fertilizer and weed control from Valley Green's Holyoke location; Valley Green's headquarters are in Massachusetts also. Bark mulch comes from Lashway Forest Products in Willimanstown, Massachusetts, a company that tries to harvest timber sustainably. In addition to keeping spending within the state economy, where businesses will pay back some of their profits in the form of state taxes which are used to support state public services, Mount Holyoke's local spending helps reduce it's carbon footprint, as products don't have to be transported very far.
Periodically, there are other larger expenses of replacing major pieces of equipment that have completely broken down. These machines often cost between $40,000 and $60,000. Mr. McMahon says that they do a limited amount of price comparison to look for substitute products with better prices, but mainly Mount Holyoke works with the same vendors it does on a regular basis, because they usually give Mount Holyoke decent deals on products in reward for its purchasing loyalty. These vendors are the ones whose products are tried and true. Mr. McMahon knows that they will last a long time so it is worth paying more up front for a machine that will cost less in the long run when it breaks down less and has a longer working life than an alternative. In more academic terms, the decision-making process he describes is cost-benefit analysis with a high rate of time preference.
Information from: Chris Domina and Ron McMahone at Facilities Management