Farewell to the Boilers and the “Zamboni”

DAYTON - John Hutch- ens knows exactly how many passes it takes to clean the floor of the multipurpose room at Dayton Elemen- tary School. "Thirty-three times," he said, waving his finger up and down the floor while pushing the Speed Scrub 2001 (a.k.a "Zamboni") past a crouched photographer.

It wasn't between peri- ods at a hockey game, but a small crowd gathered any- way to watch, shortly after a lunch period last week, as Hutchens completed the task for one of the last times. He retired Friday.

Hutchens, whose offi- cial title was "maintenance supervisor", has been a custodian at the school...