From the Princeton Weeklyn Bulletin, January 13, 1997
Grounds manager covers 2,300 acres
By Caroline Moseley
Jim Consolloy, grounds manager for Grounds and Building Maintenance, has two offices. One is in Macmillan Building. The other, more capacious, is 2,300-acres of Princeton University property.
"I've spent most of my life working outdoors, first in landscape construction, then in grounds management," he says. "There isn't any part of the campus that doesn't feel like home."
Consolloy and his 37-man crew are charged with "maintaining all campus grounds and paved surfaces," and Consolloy knows every inch of that purview. In his (indoor) office is a wall-size campus map divided into 88 quadrants, with all plantings, walkways and parking lots indicated. Each quadrant also occupies a separate file in the cabinet, on the computer--and in Consolloy's head. Ask him what's growing in the center of Brown Hall courtyard, for instance, and he answers immediately, "Bristlecone pine." Or ask him what material was used for the new Nassau Green walkway: "Brick from Marion, S.C., chosen to match the older brick in the Maclean House Garden, which was made in Redfield, Iowa, and bluestone from Endless Mountain Quarry in New York State."
Mostly on foot
In fair weather and foul, Consolloy can be seen touring the campus. Mostly he is on foot, but if he has to cover a lot of territory or if the snow is deep, he'll drive a Chevy Blazer.
Mornings are spent reviewing campus maintenance needs with the foremen of the lawn maintenance, landscape, and garden and nursery crews. "We look at specific areas that need to be cleaned up, like the parking lots and fields after a campus event. We're always on the lookout for damaged sidewalks, broken tree limbs, chipped curbing, plantings that don't look healthy. And of course in the winter we're concerned that the parking lots, roads and walkways are clear."
Afternoons are devoted to major maintenance and capital projects and often involve meetings with subcontractors in Macmillan or on site. Typical projects, Consolloy says, are the recent restoration of Holder walkways, the new fence being built around the Butler Tract on Harrison Street, the cogeneration plant landscaping and the new graduate student parking lot on Ivy Lane. "There's always something going on. We generally have several subcontractors working on campus during the academic year and as many as 10 during the summer."
A typical December morning's phone calls give some idea of the range of the grounds manager's activities. There are several calls from departments about Christmas trees (all of which get planted on campus after the holidays, says Consolloy). The Center for Jewish Life calls to check on a menorah to be erected for Hanukkah. A plant broker calls about an order of 125 trees and 320 evergreen shrubs. A student who damaged some University property calls to schedule the community service he is performing in restitution. The principal of a local elementary school requests advice about projected plantings in the school courtyard. ("We work with all the schools," Consolloy notes.) The father of a Princeton undergraduate allergy sufferer calls to find out exactly what plants grow outside his son's dorm window. A bride-to-be wants to know the name of the tree under which she will be married next spring in Prospect Garden.
Curbing inspired by Newport
Consolloy's chief satisfaction resides in creating "new plantings and walks for the campus," such as the new pathways in McCosh Courtyard. When Consolloy and his wife Patricia visited the Breakers, the Vanderbilt mansion in Newport, R.I., three years ago, he was impressed by a beveled granite edging on the mansion grounds. "It was about a century old, so obviously it lasts well, besides being beautiful," he says. Granite turned out to be too costly for the McCosh renovations, but the courtyard now boasts beveled blue-stone curbing. "It will hold up to the snow-plows," Consolloy believes, "and because of the bevel, cyclists don't skin their ankles."
He likes the stones and bricks, but he loves the trees and shrubs. A certified tree expert licensed by the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection, Consolloy will do anything he can to preserve his arboreal charges. When difficult decisions must be made about particular plantings, he likes to consult with fellow tree maven John Kuser, a Princeton resident and a member of the Class of 1946, who is associate professor of forestry and environmental resources at Cook College, Rutgers. Consolloy also works with Bartlett Tree Experts and other local arborists. "Bartlett recommended we take down the tree by Clio Hall on Elm Drive because it has Dutch Elm disease. We've spent a lot of time working on it," he says sadly. "It's a nifty old elm, but we're going to have to take it down." He hopes to save its neighbor, which is still under treatment.
Started sorting seedlings
Born in Trenton, Consolloy grew up in Pennington "on land that belonged to the old Howe Nurseries, which was gradually being sold off to developers. My parents' house was completely surrounded by the nursery." Even as a child, he says, "I was fascinated by the number and variety of plants around me." His first job was in Washington Crossing State Park, sorting seedlings for the State Forest Nursery.
A 1969 graduate of Upsala College with a BS in biology, Consolloy did graduate work in horticulture at Rutgers before joining Howe Nurseries as nursery manager. In 1976 he became nursery superintendent for Herman Panacek Inc., nurserymen and landscape contractors in Quakertown. When the company moved out of state, the Consolloys opted to stay put because they did not want to take their two children out of the Hopewell Township school system.
An ad in the Sunday Trenton Times led him to his current position. He was familiar with the University because Panacek supplied plants for Spelman and New South, he says, and Consolloy had often walked about the campus, examining plantings. He came to Princeton in May 1989 to replace the retiring George Clark as grounds manager.
Honorary '76
Consolloy is generous with his expertise, horticultural and otherwise. When the Class of 1976 wanted to plant a tree to mark its 20th Reunion, Consolloy, an honorary member of the class, helped the committee choose "a Frainetto oak, now situated on the Brown Hall hill opposite Dillon Gym." He serves the larger community as a member of the Princeton and Hopewell Shade Tree commissions and as a board member of the Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space. An enthusiastic bird watcher, he participates in an annual Christmas bird census for the Department of the Interior. And should you, God forbid, have an accident in Pennington on a Thursday night, EMT Consolloy will arrive in an ambulance to whisk you to help.
A fellow of Butler College, Consolloy was also a member of the Charter Day steering committee. To help the University celebrate its 250th Anniversary, he led a Charter Day campus tree tour on October 26, 1996. But his mind wasn't just on the trees. As grounds manager, "Did I have my fingers crossed for good weather!" he exclaims. "We were ready for every possible weather scenario. We even had snow plows and sand ready, because New Jersey has had snow as early as mid-October."
As to what the campus can expect during the winter of 1997, Consolloy's sources--both high-tech (Weather Services Corp. in Lexington, Mass., which pages him directly when there is severe weather forecast for New Jersey) and low-tech (the Farmer's Almanac )--indicate that January snowfall should be "about normal. We'll just have to wait and see."