Ashland University’s Rick Ewing, vice president of facilities management, has a reputation for keeping his department and his spending on or underbudget. It seems to be a reputation that isn’t attached to a lot of departments here at AU, which is ironic; while other departments “earn and burn,” facilities management does not generate any revenue—it only spends. It’s a lot of burning and no earning.

In 2007, AU spent $4.27 million on independent contractors for services rendered. General contractors, electrical contractors, HVAC (heating and air) contractors and flooring work were the main expenses.

In comparison, facilities management only recorded $2.48 million spent in 2008, consisting of construction, flooring, electrical contracting, and printing costs.

Finally, in 2009, $12.0 million was spent for general construction, consulting, flooring and electric.

How does facilities management and Ewing stay on or under budget if the amount of spending fluctuates so much?

“It’s a challenge,” Ewing said. “We, like other departments, have to make choices. There are things that we have to do, things that we should do, and things that we want to do. Rarely do we get into the wants, but to stay on budget we have to evaluate those things we should do.”

Ewing explained that there are “soft costs” and “hard costs” that his department deals with on a regular basis. “Soft costs” include things like architects, permit fees, furniture, and even sometimes technology, while construction, landscaping and other things of that nature are considered a “hard cost.”

One of the biggest things facilities management has dealt with in the past five years—and the reason for what looks like a huge spending spree in the 2009 tax forms—was the building of the Dwight Schar Athletic Complex. While the money was donated and did not come out of a regular budget, Ewing and his team still had to manage and budget that money, which is why 2009 has a higher spending total than other years.

“That Athletic Complex, which really spanned two years, basically would have been the stadium and the soccer area…the first year and then the Troop Center was finished in that second year,” Ewing said. “Really, $25 million in total costs, including both ‘soft cost’ and ‘hard cost,’ as well as land purchase.”

Ewing’s regular budget fluctuates slightly, but there are three main areas that factor into the spending budget.

“For the past four years now, we have put about 1.2 million dollars a year into both deferred maintenance and capitol improvements,” he said.

Deferred maintenance is taking components of campus that have either failed and need to be replaced or will fail shortly and need to be changed. Things like air conditioning systems, elevators, underground cabling or sidewalks all add to deferred maintenance costs.

Capitol improvement projects have more to do with creating facilities like Kettering, Schar, the Recreational Center, and most recently, the athletic complex. Dorm remodeling, which has included some of the most recent projects, also adds to capitol improvement costs.

Ewing’s team rarely uses contractors and businesses outside of Ohio. In fact, most of the work they have done is completed by Ashland or Mansfield businesses. It’s good for the community, often more simple and sometimes just comes down to price.

“Certainly we need to be good stewards of the university’s money and get the best price we can,” Ewing said. “All things being equal in terms of price standpoints, we prefer to stay local, because…it supports the local economy, fosters a good relationship between the university and the community, and it supports even local tax payers because they often have jobs at these local firms.”

Facilities management always bids competitively for vendors; however, because of the good relationships they have built with surrounding businesses, AU is often rewarded with a good price and good service.

“You build a relationship of trust and service which is important to us as a small institution,” Ewing said. “We don’t have a large staffed architectural department that can go out and manage things, so when we find contractors that provide good services at a good price it allows us to be much more efficient.”

Every once and a while, random purchases pop up that are not regular, like printing or consulting services. Sometimes, these are very important.

“If it’s related to a construction project our architects will design the building and then generate a set of prints,” he said. “Those are sent out to commercial printers that generate, you know, forty or fifty large sets, large drawings, that are distributed to the various contractors…it’s a specialized trade that’s outside the capability of our printing services.”

As many students know, it’s hard to predict when something on campus is going to break or go out. Ewing and his team try to evaluate problem areas and take preventative actions before anything gets out of hand.

“One of the things I like about my job is that you never know what’s going to happen,” Ewing joked. “The challenge for maintenance is trying to anticipate; it’s much better for us to anticipate that something is on its last leg and get it fixed then before it actually fails.”

Ewing cited the complete malfunction of the Clayton elevator three years ago as one of the times when something went wrong, and it couldn’t be repaired. Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to replace an elevator in a week.

“It was a month and a half project,” Ewing said. “We had to do that on an accelerated pace which cost us additional money because we had to pay two shifts of overtime and we had to fast ship a lot of the equipment… In an emergency situation or an unscheduled repair event, your costs are significantly higher than if you basically scheduled it out on your time frame…”

Facilities management takes in around 8,000 work orders a year, or 78 work orders a day. Between maintenance, grounds and janitorial staff, Ewing has about 47 employees who remedy the day-to-day problems that could prevent AU from functioning most efficiently.

“Anything from air handlers, to boilers, to exhaust fans…we even get into things like tile pop outs in bathrooms. That’s what I like about my job,” Ewing said. “You never know what the issue’s going to be.”