In a time of cutbacks and frustration, NIU’s transportation department remains efficient.

The transportation department currently has 215 vehicles and accommodates approximately 47 different departments, said Transportation Manager Bill Finucane.

Finucane said the department operates with its own revenues, not those of the university.

“Departments that use our vehicles get money through appropriated sources,” Finucane said. “Indirectly we do get appropriated money, but only when people use our vehicles.”

Finucane said the department only generates money when someone uses its service.

Other departments pay the transportation department to use their vehicles. The cost includes gas, maintenance and money toward future replacement for that vehicle.

The transportation department also charges the various departments for any repairs done, Finucane said.

Finucane said the only additional income for the department are insurance settlements resulting from accidents.

However, even with careful budgeting and income the department receives, profits are not always gained.

Finucane said the department’s total income for the last fiscal year was $1,137,081 but the total expenses were $1,161,151 (expenses include all costs, personnel, repairs and gasoline).

Losses such as these are absorbed by the department’s cash balance, which includes money saved when incomes exceeds expenses, Finucane said.

The current budget crunch forced the department to tighten its budget even more.

We planned in a 2.5 percent reduction in what we thought would be our income,” Finucane said.

The department currently includes four full-time automotive mechanics, six motor vehicle operators/mechanics, a foreman, three workers in the office and two students who wash cars at night.

“We try to do as much as we can here because it is less expensive to use our own equipment and own workers,” he said. “98 to 99 percent of the work is done here in-house, but if we don’t have the equipment or we don’t have the space to do a repair, it is done elsewhere.”

Safety is an important concern of the transportation department, so in addition to careful upkeep of the vehicles, the vehicles are replaced at regular intervals.

Finucane said he anticipates purchasing 29 new vehicles this year, including 20 sedans, eight trucks and one new squad car.

Also, the money for the new vehicles comes from money saved from the use of the current vehicles by the departments, and the vehicles purchased are not extravagant.

“All the vehicles we have for the university are just functional,” Finucane said.

Finucane said ‘functional’ means the cars have air conditioning, AM/FM stereos and cruise control.

Ada Hetland, office supervisor in the school of nursing, uses vehicles through the transportation department often and said the system is well-run.

“We use the transportation department services every day,” Hetland said. “The vehicles are clean, in very good condition and comfortable.”

Hetland said she tries to put in requests for vehicles as early as possible, but even when she has had to ask at the last minute, she has been accommodated.

Betsy Smith, coordinator of elementary clinical experiences, has worked with the transportation department for six years.

“Transportation does a very good job of keeping the vehicles up,” Smith said.