Posted: 7/1/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Wesley Fane An electric vehicle owned by the University sits outside the garage on Oak Street on Monday afternoon. "It won't replace a full-size van, of course," said Pete Varney, associate director of the garage, but the University's small fleet of electric cars are playing a role in the everyday transport needs of the school. The soaring cost of gas has diverted funds from other campus projects to filling up workers' vehicles.

Gas is now, on average, more than $4 per gallon in the state of Illinois. If people do not have to drive, they don't. Unfortunately, some gas use cannot be avoided.

High prices have begun to affect the University in a variety of ways.

"On all of our new vehicles, we are monitoring the idle time on them," said Pete Varney, associate director of the University's garage and car pool. "We want to reduce the amount of time the drivers are idling."

Varney said that between July and April, Facilities and Services vehicles went through as much fuel as in the preceding 12-month fiscal year. He said he has not looked at how much more they have spent, but it could be as much as $60,000 just for Facilities and Services.

"I try to prepare a budget on an annual basis," Varney said. "Still, I may have to revisit that if fuel continues to fluctuate as much as it has."

This year, Varney said they will most likely be looking for more money for fuel costs alone, and those prices may be taking money away from other areas.

"Every dollar that F&S spends on fuel is one dollar less that they can spend on repairing something on campus," Varney said.

Varney also runs the car pool, which loans out cars to University faculty and staff for them to use for various trips. Of all areas, travel has not started to become affected just yet. Still, Varney said he believes University departments may become more frugal as gas prices continue to increase.

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