William Henke
On Saturday, Oct. 14, the lights in parking lot A1, the parking lot between MacKay Hall and Auld House, shut off due to an electrical timer failure. “Our response was very quick considering it was a weekend,” said Christopher Eichorst, assistant vice president of facilities services and campus security. Facilities staff fixed the broken timer for the lights and turned the lights back on within an hour of it being reported.
“Equipment and devices break frequently on a campus [with] over 1 million square feet in 52 buildings/offices, […] neighborhood houses [and] over 200 acres including the Back 40,” said Eichorst. There is a lot of work for facilities, but they do their best to get it done in an expedient manner.
“[The] best way to get a response for an urgent repair is to call (509) 777-3254,” said Eichorst. “The hours of operation for this number are Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Within these hours, a live person will answer and either create a work order, or if the topic is urgent, dispatch someone to take care of it.”
“If after hours or weekends, the same number will take you to [a] phone tree where you can select “trades,” “grounds” or “custodial,” depending on the issue. The on-call person will either answer the phone right away or get a voicemail and respond accordingly. If it is routine maintenance the person should just submit a work order or call during business hours,” said Eichorst.
“It is important to note that if the situation is urgent (flooding, no power, no water, no heat, etc.), facilities should be called right away, regardless of the time of day,” said Eichorst. “The on-call person will come to campus to investigate and repair or coordinate with others or a contractor to come repair as soon as practicable.”
If there are any non-reported broken or non-functional properties on campus, facilities cannot know to fix it.
Click here to learn more about work requests.