Issue date: 2/12/09 Section: News

James Gilbert, stationary engineer, pulls ash from the ash pit for boiler number two in the lower level of the university power plant Wednesday afternoon. The plant built in the 1920s has been experiencing maintenance problems due to its age and deffered maintenances fees; Gilbert pointed out that among other problems there is a crack in the foundation on the lower level which allows water to leak in as well as a rusted flash tank that drains and cools steam from the upper level. (Karolina Strack/The Daily Eastern News)

James Gilbert, stationary engineer at the steam plant, shines a light onto a wall in the lower level of the plant where water has been coming in on Wednesday Feb. 11. The steam plant has become known for its constant decay, having been build in the 1920s the university is planning to replace it with a renewable energy center on Route 130 and Edgar Drive. (Karolina Starck/The Daily Eastern News)

One of the flash tanks in the steam plant has seen the toll of time and became decayed and rusted. The container is used to drain the upper level and acts as a cooling tank. (Karolina Starck/The Daily Eastern News)

Water pours out of a crack in the university steam plant's foundation in the lower level of the building causing puddles of water to form throughout the area. (Karolina Strack/The Daily Eastern News)

With an uncertain future and 2.5 percent of state appropriations in reserve for this year, facilities on campus needing repairs might have to wait to be fixed.

President Bill Perry said deferred maintenance costs, maintenance work that should be done to facilities but is too expensive to conduct, would increase if there were a budget reduction in state appropriations for next year.

He said if the university has to relinquish the 2.5 percent in reserve, deferred maintenance costs would increase slightly for this year as well.

"This year, there is some impact," Perry said. "Next year, there will be more impact."

Deferred maintenance costs for the university are $176.5 million. The university's base budget for this year that goes to conducting deferred maintenance work is $1.9 million.

"That's not enough," Perry said. "There's maintenance we can't get to with that."

He said, in the event of budget reductions, the university would focus its time and money to safety-related deferred maintenance.

The other types of deferred maintenance are maintenance work that disrupts the educational operation of the university and miscellaneous maintenance work.

Facilities Planning and Management is in charge of tracking deferred maintenance on campus.

Gary Reed, director of Facilities Planning and Management, said his department tracks building conditions through its maintenance work control system and periodic assessments that are recorded in a deferred maintenance log.

Reed said, according to facilities management guidelines, the university would need to invest 1.5 percent of replacement value in existing buildings.

"We are funded at about 0.5 percent," Reed said. "If funding remains flat, deferred maintenance keeps increasing."

Perry said, although deferred maintenance needs attention, other needs of the university are more important.

He said 75 percent of the general revenue budget, comprised of tuition and state appropriations, goes to personnel costs. The other 25 percent goes to operating costs, facilities included. Three-fourths of the operating costs are fixed costs the university has to budget such as utilities, Perry said.

"It's a non-trivial exercise," Perry said of deferred maintenance. "You know what you have to get done and you do as much as you can do."

Paul McCann, interim vice president for business affairs, said as a building gets older, it requires more maintenance work. He said people would start to see the need for maintenance work on facilities throughout a long period. For example, the steam plant, which was built around 1926, has $30 million of the total deferred maintenance costs that accumulated throughout time.

"We can say we need $176 million of work done around campus but, when it comes right down to it, probably some of this you would never see," McCann said. "It would never affect anything that we are doing."

Reed said, without additional funding, conditions of campus buildings will continue to decline.

McCann said the university would address safety-related deferred maintenance first. Other deferred maintenance work might be delayed until additional funds are available, he said.

"There's a lot of flexibility in that number," McCann said of the $176.5 million deferred maintenance costs.

Perry said, with the university having less state appropriations then it did in fiscal year 2002, the university has been constrained. He said, despite this, the university needs to move forward.

"We'll be good stewards of the state's resources and good stewards of the tuition revenue we get from our students," Perry said. "We're going to keep the university moving forward."


For extended coverage, go to Dennews.com


Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or at sdibenedetto@eiu.edu.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools

The Daily Eastern News encourages on-topic, civil discussion on its articles posted online. It is our policy not to screen comments before they are posted or edit them after they are posted. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language. The DEN also reserves the right to turn off all comments on any story it deems necessary.

Comments violating copyright law will also be removed.

Users who repeatedly violate this policy will be banned from commenting.

If you have any questions on our comment policy or wish to report a comment that you feel violates these standards, please e-mail a link to the article to our Online Editor at DENNews.com@gmail.com.