In the 1930s, before white pickup trucks, Knute Heglund patrolled campus at night with only his watchdog to keep him company. Heglund was the first employee of the newly created Parking Division which was a way to handle the growing traffic problems on campus.

Today there is a service award given to employees named after Heglund in the Department of Public Safety division.

In 2004, that award was given to Peggy Best, the bubbly office coordinator in Room 29 of the Armory. She has been working at Iowa State for 21 years and has shuffled around many different positions. When Pulse was looking to do 15 Minutes with someone from DPS, all fingers pointed at her.

Why do you think you were nominated for this interview?

I get along really well with the students. We have about 70 working for us, and I think a lot of days you end up being like “mom.” We have pretty good camaraderie around here. That could be why. Or it could be that no one else was around.

What is a normal day like for you?

Well, on a run-of-the-mill day, I balance yesterday’s business. All of the cash goes to the bank with the armored car every morning. Then a lot of it is getting on my e-mail and someone may have a special guest coming in and they never thought of what they were going to do with these 50 cars. A construction project may come up or a steam line might break in a lot and we have to get everyone out right away and figure out what we are going to do. So, I never know when I come in what I’m going to be doing. If the phone never rang and I never turned on my computer, I’ve got all kinds of other stuff going on.

What motivates you to do this job?

I really think the police part of it is interesting, so when this position came open, it just seemed like it would just be really fun to work here. During Veishea time, I got to work and help out with prisoner transport.

Prisoner transport?

Yeah, if they arrest people they bring them in here to do paperwork, and then I would ride in the paddy wagon or the police car over to Nevada, because a lot of times they are females and they have to have a female do the search and be with them. So, it freed up a lot of the police officers. It was pretty exciting.

Was it pretty crazy?

I was in the paddy wagon on Welch Avenue. It was crazy. We just had to sit there. We couldn’t get out because of the rioting, so I was just trying to help out with people coming in off the line when they were tear gassed. I actually kind of tear gassed myself.

Sorry?

We were in the paddy wagon and one of the Ames police officers took off his mask and set it down and then he forgot it. So I said, ‘Well I’ll hold on to it.’ So I was holding it and all of a sudden my eyes started watering. I didn’t realize I had it on my hands, and it was coming from the mask, so by the time we got back to the fire station, I was like, ‘I gassed myself.’

So where does all of this money for parking fines go?

Our parking division is self-supportive, so all the money that we make to pay for everything comes from parking fines and permit sales. [It] pays for salaries, the computers, building new lots, maintaining our current ones, snow removal, painting, repairs. If they have to mill a lot and take two inches off, that’s tens of thousands of dollars. So, that all comes out of what we make. We don’t keep a lot of it. If we make more in a year, then that goes into what we need to do next. If we can fit one more project in, we will do it. It pays for itself. It’s a big business, unfortunately.

Any advice for illegal parkers?

Don’t do it. People really are very negative about the parking division. It is just like, we are really good people here, we are just doing our jobs, we don’t ask you to park illegally, but you do it, and we try real hard to answer peoples’ questions, and we try to work with you.

If someone has a special need, give us a call. We do medical permits if you sprain your ankle and need access to classes. We really try to help people out.

So, just don’t do it?

Yeah, or do it more. Maybe if people did we wouldn’t have mice running around.