As county residents start preparing their homes for winter, the county housing authority maintenance workers are making similar preparations.

Only they’re doing so on a grand scale.

With more than 660 apartment units across 14 complexes to maintain, preparation is vital for a maintenance staff of seven people.

Anthony Ciafre and Sandra Reges are in charge of organizing that staff.

Ciafre serves as the maintenance superintendent for the authority, coordinating all work done by the workers.

Reges, who has been with the authority for 30 years, is the operations manager for the authority, meaning the maintenance staff is under her watch as well.

Together they organize workers to deal with everyday cleaning, as well as common work orders from tenants.

“We average probably 20 to 30 work orders per day,” Reges said.

Work orders range from fixing a leaky faucet or running toilet to replacing old filters in air conditioning units.

Ciafre said the biggest factor on how often work needs to be done is how new the apartments are.

“Obviously if a building has recently been renovated, it won’t require as much work,” he said.

That work is on top of the everyday work done by the staff.

Reges said there is never a predictable day in maintenance.

“The workload is a lot of planning and preparation,” she said. “But there’s always spur of the moment stuff that happens everyday.”

Things that are sporadic chores for a family home become everyday struggles across a housing agency.

“We don’t allow anything to be broken down,” Ciafre said.

The housing authority manages two types of apartment units: family living and senior living.

While the units seem to require the same type of maintenance, the family units require a little extra attention.

“Normally, wear and tear is different with families because there are more people in the apartments coming and going,” Reges said.

The day-to-day maintenance is stressful year-round, but the harsh winter months bring the biggest challenges for the crew.

On top of the plethora of typical duties to handle, the staff must also deal with the dangers that come from snow, most notably the icy sidewalks and stairs.

With anticipated struggles, the staff is already prepared for the first snow of the year.

“Winter preparation is an area where we’re probably most prepared,” Reges said.

The crews repair any damaged winter equipment throughout the summer to make sure it is ready for winter.

“We make sure equipment is up to date and make sure we have sidewalk salt in stock,” Reges said.

The staff also does various other tasks, like installing glass into the screen doors to ready the apartments.

“We spend the whole summer preparing for the health and safety of the residents,” Ciafre said.

Preparation is needed as the winter months bring on the most difficult safety issues for the staff.

Clearing stairs and sidewalks to the buildings is perhaps the biggest challenge.

With twice as many buildings as workers, heavy snowstorms can be hard to handle.

While staff members typically have a designated complex to manage, anyone can be assigned elsewhere to handle bad weather, Reges said.

Ciafre said the biggest struggle is simply managing the variety of tasks.

“Mainly keeping up with all of it is the biggest thing,” he said.

Despite the challenge, Reges said the staff always does a good job with snow.

“Everybody knows how well maintained our sidewalks are,” she said.

With that, Reges still urges residents to be cautious about heavy snow days, as accidents can always happen.

“When snow is projected, residents should look if they have to go out that day and risk a fall,” she said.

The challenges for the staff are certainly unpredictable, but it’s a challenge they love to rise to.

“They’re out there every morning,” Ciafre said of his workers. “We deal with it, and we deal with it well.

“We attack it, just like it attacks us.”