Facilities Operations
The Facilities Department's goal is to provide an efficient, effective and safe environment for the resident chimpanzees, staff, volunteers, and guests. They provide daily property services including building maintenance, construction, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, auto mechanics, welding, landscaping and grounds maintenance. Chimpanzees like to solve puzzles, and sometimes that means they try to take pieces of their home apart to see how it goes together! The team is always kept on their toes to ensure the chimps and staff are safe!
They also run point on our Browse Program and Project Harvest, an expanding area to grow and harvest fruits, vegetables, nuts and forageable plants for the increasing number of chimps.
The team oversees contractors for services such as roadway surfacing, advanced plumbing and electrical services, or damaged tree removals.
Learn more here:
To directly support the facilities department, consider sending a gift of tools or parts from our Wishlist!
Manager
Rodney Newberry came to Project Chimps with twelve years of facility experience. His experiences includes property maintenance, landscaping, construction, and supervision of vendors. He came to Project Chimps in 2019, after volunteering in the facilities department. In his role, Rodney has lead projects including building medical cubbies, outdoor structures, and the renovation of villas.
Team Members
Rodney heads a multi disciplined team. Together, they provide services including building maintenance, light construction, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, auto mechanics, welding, landscaping, facility sanitation, safety, and grounds maintenance.
Staff
- Jim Lacombe - Facilities Maintenance Specialist joined 2022
- Nate Waite - Grounds Specialist joined 2023
- Michael Mauldin - Facilities Assistant joined 2023
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Noah Clark - Facilities Assistant joined 2023
- Lucas Stiles - Facilities Technician joined 2017
Facilities Volunteers
Nearly 4,000 hours of volunteer service are logged in the facilities department each year. The skilled and committed group of 20 volunteers help to build new climbing structures for the chimps, create garden areas, clear brush, treat ailing Hemlock trees, make repairs inside the chimpanzee villas, and create new chimpanzee enrichment items like fire hose hammocks and ladders.
Volunteers also donate their professional skills in the areas of landscape design, utility monitoring, flying drones to monitor property health after storms, and so much more!
Interested in joining the volunteer team? Apply today!
Won't You Help?
This project would not be possible without our many generous individual supporters and volunteers. We rely on donations to fulfill our mission, including caring for our existing residents and expanding the sanctuary to accommodate those chimpanzees still waiting in the lab.
Won’t you help us bring the remaining chimps to sanctuary by supporting Project Chimps today? Please donate today because...